Bangkok, Thailand - 2012.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 //
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Back in May, the boyfriend , friends & ; I headed to Bangkok for a short summer vacation. Explored around with lots of foods and sight-seeing. What I loved the most about Bangkok is that, it has so much to offer, regardless of food , sight-seeing or even shopping. Everything was just so unique and colorful if you actually dare to take the time and explore these places which are usually out of the city itself, just by using their public transports. Thus, this was whats on the plan throughout this trip. Well, its not my first time in Thailand but I can tell you that its always different being in the city itself and exploring places outside the city. Its way interesting and we really enjoyed our trip. Neither did we knew much about the transportation system around in Bangkok apart from its train system and cab but we made it to other parts of Thailand and that satisfaction you get when you get to explore other places using all sorts of different transportation and its all within your budget :)
First day upon reaching, we headed to Chatuchak market which is a place where they always sells cheap and reasonably priced goods and a heaven for affordable food :D went there to shop for a bit since its the weekend and Chatuchak only opens during the weekend, managed to try the unique foods available there aka that's the pink color pressured ice-cream from Japan, but its also available in Singapore since I saw it there :). It pops out the moment you cut the tube and it keeps flowing out non-stop until you see a small plastic tube inside; and the sweet potato balls was so tangy I love em' so much. I did not enjoy the white color coconut dessert as the taste of the coconut , very really different. More like a roast coconut dessert and imagine how weird the taste would be as coconut is supposed to be all sweet and milky but adding a roast burnt taste to it is totally, killing it.
As for dinner, we researched on the internet that one of the best place that offers good authentic Thailand food is Cabbages & ; Condoms. I know as cliche as it can be for its name, this place actually offers really awesome and authentic thai food compared to those I've tried before. This place was built because it supposed to be a restaurant which serves food with a motive of educating the younger generations of practicing safe sex thus they actually sells various sex related souvenirs and also offering condoms instead of mints to the guests. They even have human size figurines all around this place with condoms covering them as added presentation. Oh, totally must try out their food here, especially the Grilled Pork Neck was our favorite among the rest. Price wise, it is quite reasonable for a restaurant. Highly recommended place to be and I will always go back there if I have the chance to someday.
On the second day, we headed to the Southern bus terminal to explore the floating market in Thailand. The most famous floating market which is the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was a merely 2.5 hours journey away from Bangkok city itself. The ticket costs us approximately RM20 (200 baht) per person both ways.
Upon reaching Damnoen Saduak, the bus driver dropped us off at a place where you can charter a boat to explore the floating market. We paid about RM80 for 2 person (800 baht) as we chartered the entire boat to ourselves for about an hour after bargaining. The price was higher but it is advisable to bargain as much as you can and be there as early as 9am to get to explore the place at its best as anything later than that will delay your journey as there will be more boats and jams along the river. Well, what we experienced there was basically seeing people selling fruits and clothes on board the little small boats and tasting food but some things here are overpriced as it is a tourist visiting area, thus always remember to bargain each time you want to purchase anything- even food items! Oh, you can also pay in RM if you ran out of thai baht because their money changer is really limited. I love how colorful everything is over there, totally an eye opening experience and we tried the fish noodle and the famous glutinous rice and mango. I really enjoyed eating the mini sized coconut pancake served on a banana boat leaf, and it was cheap! RM 2 (20 baht) for 8 pieces :D and saddest and yet funny thing was we ran out of cash by the time we needed to pay for a bowl of RM 5 (50 baht) noodle just because we did not change and expect to use so much more thus we got freaked out for a little bit there until we found the money changers, and luckily a bank at such remote area :D never imagine that we can be that broke during the second day of our trip but nevertheless that's what makes this trip more fun and memorable.
As for dinner, we researched on the internet that one of the best place that offers good authentic Thailand food is Cabbages & ; Condoms. I know as cliche as it can be for its name, this place actually offers really awesome and authentic thai food compared to those I've tried before. This place was built because it supposed to be a restaurant which serves food with a motive of educating the younger generations of practicing safe sex thus they actually sells various sex related souvenirs and also offering condoms instead of mints to the guests. They even have human size figurines all around this place with condoms covering them as added presentation. Oh, totally must try out their food here, especially the Grilled Pork Neck was our favorite among the rest. Price wise, it is quite reasonable for a restaurant. Highly recommended place to be and I will always go back there if I have the chance to someday.
On the second day, we headed to the Southern bus terminal to explore the floating market in Thailand. The most famous floating market which is the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was a merely 2.5 hours journey away from Bangkok city itself. The ticket costs us approximately RM20 (200 baht) per person both ways.
Upon reaching Damnoen Saduak, the bus driver dropped us off at a place where you can charter a boat to explore the floating market. We paid about RM80 for 2 person (800 baht) as we chartered the entire boat to ourselves for about an hour after bargaining. The price was higher but it is advisable to bargain as much as you can and be there as early as 9am to get to explore the place at its best as anything later than that will delay your journey as there will be more boats and jams along the river. Well, what we experienced there was basically seeing people selling fruits and clothes on board the little small boats and tasting food but some things here are overpriced as it is a tourist visiting area, thus always remember to bargain each time you want to purchase anything- even food items! Oh, you can also pay in RM if you ran out of thai baht because their money changer is really limited. I love how colorful everything is over there, totally an eye opening experience and we tried the fish noodle and the famous glutinous rice and mango. I really enjoyed eating the mini sized coconut pancake served on a banana boat leaf, and it was cheap! RM 2 (20 baht) for 8 pieces :D and saddest and yet funny thing was we ran out of cash by the time we needed to pay for a bowl of RM 5 (50 baht) noodle just because we did not change and expect to use so much more thus we got freaked out for a little bit there until we found the money changers, and luckily a bank at such remote area :D never imagine that we can be that broke during the second day of our trip but nevertheless that's what makes this trip more fun and memorable.
We took so much of the public transports available there that I think we actually took every single transport available there in just four days. Since we headed to Damnoen Saduak earlier in the day for a half day visit, we came back to exploring the street markets nearby our hotel by the road side which sell delicious yet super cheap food for our dinner. Our favorite got to be the bird egg and soy sauce pancake roll which was only RM2 (20 baht) for about 6 pieces. As an additional things, we got pork legs and some vegetables and other stuffs from the food stalls that cost us only about RM10 (100 baht). Unbelievable.
Later in the evening, we walked merely 5 minutes to a nearby mall which has a unique theme - Haunted Mansion 7. Actually this place was newly opened, and a disappointment to me because I was hoping for it to be a huge shopping mall but it was actually just a factory size mall with a haunted house and some arcade games, restaurants with few clothes boutiques in it. However, since the theme made it unique and special so we end up taking lots of haunted scary pictures and no, we did not went into the haunted house because I was achicken girl with no guts :D the boyfriend thought we should head to the pub and get us some alcohol drinks and by then I will be daring enough to go in but heck no, I was still the same before drinking and then we left. Oh well, teehee.
Later in the evening, we walked merely 5 minutes to a nearby mall which has a unique theme - Haunted Mansion 7. Actually this place was newly opened, and a disappointment to me because I was hoping for it to be a huge shopping mall but it was actually just a factory size mall with a haunted house and some arcade games, restaurants with few clothes boutiques in it. However, since the theme made it unique and special so we end up taking lots of haunted scary pictures and no, we did not went into the haunted house because I was a
The very next day, we headed to the Sai Tai Mai bus terminal and purchased our ticket to Hua Hin. Interestingly, our cab driver dropped us off at the wrong bus terminal and we end up paying extra cab fare to get to the right bus terminal. It got our mood really down because it was annoying how the people there doesn't understand English. We went to the nearest 7-11 and bought our breakfast to be consume during the trip. Those croissants and puffs are fresh and relatively cheap we had like 4 pieces each. Our bus moved around 9am and we reached Hua Hin after a 3.5 hours ride. This time, we were really lucky because we do not know where the bus will stop so I was just keeping an eye all the time on our whereabouts while the boyfriend was asleep. At one point, I woke up and was looking coincidentally at the place we wanted to visit and immediately we alight. We visited Plearnwan, which was located just right beside the opposite road .
Plearnwan is a place with an old vintage theme to it. What a good place to relive the old times.It's like a small shopping areas featuring lots of vintage items and of course in a unique setting. Seeing shops that sells old vintage items mixed with the relatively modern items, and the things there instantly brings us back to the fond memories as a little kid buying cheap snacks from the little van who visits our neighborhood, and also having stalls that sells candies and bubble pop bottles and more; we couldn't help but was so amazed that some things still exists since our childhood and being sold there.
Food was unique but not exactly reasonable. It is a tourist place after all. We had fish noodles that costs RM5 (50 baht) and the round rice ball thingy that is not-so-nice and I loved that blue and transparent white wrapped up dim sum kinda thing, don't know what they called it in Thailand but its filling was the sweet peanut sauce which was to die for and it only costs RM2 (20 baht)! They had this little ferries wheel that we thought we could sit on but it was closed since forever. Oh, and if you're looking for souvenirs this place offers a variety of unique souvenirs such as the dried / fried chili items like the soft shell baby crabs that we bought or sweet items like coconut candies that tasted like candle wax to me :/
Later in the evening, we were supposed to get a ride back to Bangkok. So we waited by the road side to get a tuk tuk because there were no cabs to the bus station and we couldn't get any until we walked for about 10 minutes to a place where there is a police guarding some house and sought help. He flagged us a tuk tuk within minutes and managed to ask the driver to drop us at the bus station. The bus station is actually an old shop which has only a counter for selling tickets and a few rows of chairs to sit. It's kinda creepy if you ask me but at this point, we totally bought it seeing its a small town , what to expect? I forgot how much was the tickets but I know we ran out of cash as we overspent at Hua Hin buying souvenirs and food tasting again :p had to wait till about 8pm till the money changer reopens. Again reminder; keeping to your budget is important! Since we had like 2 hours to spare while waiting for the money changer to reopen, we end up exploring what Hua Hin night market has to offer. It was like a night market selling what Chatuchak sells, at a higher price as it is a tourist destination after all. Had awesome dinner at one of the shops there, very hearty authentic thai meal yet again, it was really cheap and delicious. I finally get to try out my Nutella crepe cake which I wanted to try out since earlier of this year when I was in France but didn't get to because I got freaked out when the person before me's crepe cake got burnt right in front of our eyes , and I don't trust them to make my crepe cake anymore. However, this did not disappoint at all, tasted fan-ta-bu-lous and it only costs RM3.50 (350 baht)!
There's the handmade heart shape lollipop and the handmade wooden key-chain the boyfriend got us as a souvenir for ourselves from Hua Hin. He got me the bubble pop thingy too so I can blow bubbles, just like a kid again ;D
On the last day, we signed up for tours visit to various temples around Bangkok city. Our driver came to the hotel and fetched us to the first temple we went to which was the Wat Traimit Wittayaram, and met up with our tour guide. I couldn't recall her name. She was a friendly lady, quite talkative and a very curious type of person, but she was very informative.Wat Traimit Wittayaram attracts tourists because of its Golden Buddha which is the largest golden Buddha image in the world and it was made with pure gold weighing 5 tonnes! She took us to Wat Pho which is the largest temple in Bangkok to witness the famed gold plated reclining Buddha measured 46 meters long and covered in gold leaf. Another uniqueness of the Buddha is that its legs are made of mother of pearls. Really unique and interesting to look at it just right in front of your eyes. Did a little donation as we are grateful for the things we have and how smoothly our holidays end up at the temple where the boyfriend bought me a bowl of coins and asked me to toss it into the stretch long of bowls along our way and recite what I'm thankful for. It was fun. There was this 12 animals donation box too, and we don't know what is it for but we donated to our animal sign anyways - the Snake.
I managed to try the famous coconut ice-cream outside of Wat Pho as the weather was really humid. The uncle was really generous with the toppings and ice cream that I cannot get enough of the ice cream in my mouth. After all that Golden Buddha sight-seeing, our tour guide took us to a few factories for sight-seeing and shopping but obviously we could not afford anything from there but since she insisted us to go along with the plans as it was complimentary from the tourism board of Thailand, we went along and visited a few places, like the famous jewel factories, famous cloth factory and antique shop. Which reminds me a lot about China, where they often brings you around to places like this whenever you're on a tour and in hope that you'll buy something back as souvenirs.
Finally after all the visiting, our driver sent us back to the hotel where we redeemed ourselves a 15 minute complimentary massage from the hotel. Just what we needed to complete this wonderful vacation. Upon checking out, we headed to a nearby huge shopping mall called Esplanade where we got to try out the McDonald's pork burger which is not available here in Malaysia / Singapore. It was not as good as how we expected the patty to be but it is still edible and acceptable. Lastly, we tried also the popcorn from the cinema. Why popcorn of all things? because it is a coconut flavored popcorn with real coconut shredding inside and it tasted so good I can't even describe it. I technically, finished up the whole thing and the boyfriend only managed to have few bites of it ;D
Well, this wrapped up how we spent our amazing short summer vacation in Bangkok this year. Till Then !
Labels: Bangkok, Cabbages and Condoms, Chatuchak, Damnoen Saduak, Food, Haunted Mansion 7 mall, Hua Hin, Love, Personal, Places to Visit, Plearnwan, Temples, Thailand, Vacation
5th Post on Paris - The City of Love - Palais Garnier
Tuesday, July 5, 2011 //
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The next place we visited was the Palais Garnier.
On the way there, we stopped by a drug store and it captured my eyes as their drug stores are all decorated with neon lights signboards unlike what we see in Malaysia where neon lights signboards are normally used for entertainment places such as clubs.
The Palais Garnier also known as the Opéra de Paris or Opéra Garnier.
It is actually a 1,600 seats opera house that was designed by Charles Garnier and was regarded as a masterpiece of its time.
Using our student cards to purchase the ticket, it costs us 5 euro which is about RM21 for entrance fee.
The interior of the many places inside the opera house. I just love how everything looked so grand and I love how the architecture look so neatly done and thoughts of perfections were given to it the moment it was built and well preserved till this day.
I absolutely love this place because it was my first time actually visiting an actual opera house and initially I thought this place was a museum. Look at the picture below this, these are actually doors to individual balcony rooms and each room can cater up to 6 persons with velvet-ish walls. Classic.
The inside view of each of the balcony rooms. It reminded me of Phantom of the Opera the movie.
Lots and lots of beautiful chandeliers hanging on the ceiling which makes up the grand feeling when you're inside. Not to mention, the very artistic paintings surrounding the entire building.
This is actually the view from the main balcony of the opera house. Overlooking the city. The feeling when you stood up there is how you will feel as a pope, waving to thousands of people at St. Peter Square. But for this, you actually wave to the locals here and they are the ones that try to get your attention so you will take their pictures from above.
The interior.
This building actually served as the principal venue of the Parisian Opera and Ballet since its open. Thus, this explains why they have a gift shop that is totally dedicated to ballet dancers selling the outfits, shoes, books, cd, keychains and many more other ballet related items inside.
After that, we continued our journey just shopping around Paris's famous shopping area , the Champ Elysees and visited the Arch De Triomphe. Fret not, more pictures coming in the next post.
Till Then.
Labels: France, French, Friends, Holidays, Palais Garnier, Paris, Places to Visit, Travel, Vacation
Sandakan - My Rabbit Year Celebration.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 //
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Again,
it has been almost a week since my last post!
Was really busy with my assignments and I'm glad all the reading paid off.
Yesterday had my economics presentation and my lecturer's expectation was really high this time.
After our presentation she said my group was really good and that she's impressed,
and we have also set a new standard of work for the other groups in the future. Teehee, good luck!
And that means,
I have to start cracking head for my Dissertation which I've been saying I needed to start doing but just couldn't find the time to do so :( sigh.
Anyways,
I'm just going to update what happened during Chinese New Year this year because I have limited time.
This year's Chinese New Year was just back to how it was 3-4 years ago I guess.
Long gone the days, since my house actually have open house, it's getting tiring for my mum.
So she decided not to held an open house anymore and then our new years was spent overseas, or in Sandakan.
Last year I was at Beijing with my family, how fast time flies :/
This year's was spent back at Sandakan,
uncle's place, went there for 4 days 3 nights,
and it was raining cats and dogs, floods everywhere!
Just some pictures from the trip that I made into collages,
few of the new decorations in the house... love em!
Uncle's house has more toys now compared to before!
courtesy from the last trip to Hong Kong Disneyland.
First night's dinner, got to love that herbal chicken :D so tasty.
First day's best breakfast - the famous siew kut and
Second day's fish noodle was not bad too.
Dinner we had pork knuckles, octopus, prawns , abalones , crabs and pork stew , vege (:
I love home cooked dishes!
Second day's fish noodle was not bad too.
Dinner we had pork knuckles, octopus, prawns , abalones , crabs and pork stew , vege (:
I love home cooked dishes!
checked into D'Northstar Hotel and realized that it was a very good place to stay at.
Just newly opened, about a week before we were there and it was really nice.
The room was big enough and everything inside was of course still new and was modern looking.
I did not take pictures of the room in general though.
The staffs were all friendly, every time they see you coming at the door or before you leave they'll all greet you.
Even those at the front desks,
and there's once I came back to the hotel with my dad
and it was pouring heavily, we did not have an umbrella with us,
the bell man saw me and ran after me to escort with an umbrella to the car , very attentive staff!
had our tea break before uncle's open house on the 3rd day we're there
@ Brew Cottage, located at Prime Square, just behind the hotel we stayed at.
Awesome food and beverages! at really reasonable price!
When we saw the bill, we all couldn't believe the price,
it was only RM50+ for all , and to top it off , no tax at all!
Ordered 2 glasses of Hot Chocolate, 1 Apple latte , 1 Nut Cocoa (MUST TRY!), 1 Ice blended Passionfruit , 1 plate of cocktail sausages with crumbs , 1 bolognese spaghetti and Beef burger set
Everything was good, seriously. Even the owner was being very nice, came talking to us and personally stood by the door to greet us goodbye even when the shop was packed.
I will and must go back there next time!
that night was the open house at uncle's place..
Thus,
ends the update for my trip in Sandakan.
More to come during this weekend!
Till Then!
ends the update for my trip in Sandakan.
More to come during this weekend!
Till Then!
Labels: Chinese New Year, Family, Food, Holidays, Kota Kinabalu, Places to Eat, Places to Visit, Sabah, Sandakan, Special Occasion, Vacation
Kota Kinabalu - J.Residences, Ranau, Kundasang
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 //
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This is a belated blog post of my recent family trip to Kundasang.
It was an unplanned trip considering we just decided to go up two days before,
and after calling up a few hotels that was fully booked due to public holidays,
we settled down at J.Residence for a night.
well currently, this place is on promotion and its still very new.
MYR80 nett per night,
but since it was a public holiday so it was MYR138 nett per night,
without ANY facilities other than room.
Not even a place to eat, but they do have a barbeque pit and a place for rent.
Situated nearby just right outside is a Malay style restaurant I guess.
Situated nearby just right outside is a Malay style restaurant I guess.
It was our first time there, normally we settle down at Pine Resort/ Mesilau.
Dad found out about this place through a flyer placed at the airport.
for more information about this place : www.jresidence.com
they even have the layout of the rooms available,
and we chose the one with the best view of course.
The weather there was awesome, considering KL was friggin warm for the past few months,
and at night it wasn't too chilly :/ maybe because of the whiskies and bucket of KFCs that we had for the night.
Basically we just enjoyed a peaceful night, relaxing there while chit-chatting the night away.
Most of all, I love how the sun made every picture looked nice :)
below are my few of my favourite pictures :)
That was my nail paint before,
and now its..
just pink.
Labels: Family, Holidays, Kota Kinabalu, Kundasang, Places to Visit, Ranau, Sabah, Vacation
