back from short vacation~

Back from trip since Saturday. Was fun, and yeah, managed to survive road crossing in Vietnam, yay!! Hahaha! All in all, spent less than SGD700 inclusive of air-ticket, hotel and expenses there. Hehehe.

Here are some of the charms of Ho Chi Minh city:

crossing road with scooters and car coming at you...

Saigon telecom

ca phe

pho bo

cheap local beer

Posted Day 1 too.
Here is Day 2 and Day 3.

to a land far far away

Well... not quite far, actually. To Macau. The land of casinos and egg tarts. Gonna fly in a couple of hours time. Hope the weather is good, but someone said it'll be raining over there.

First time flying via Tiger Airways. Wonder how much does a cup of coffee costs in there....

Bangkok 19th July

This is the designated shopping day (at least for some of us). Adeline and Jasmine went to the temple to pray in the morning, before meeting us at Platinum later in the afternoon. So the 3 of us, was to comb Platinum Fashion Mall from late morning onwards. Of course, had to make a pit stop at the food court, so that we can fuel up for the day.


assorted fish ball soup


crispy chicken rice


The stuffs at Platinum are priced as individual item or wholesale. Some shops may offer a discount even if you are buying just 1 item. But depends on shop. But usually there will not be any further discount once the wholesale price is offered. Wholesale price means if you buy minimum 2 or 3 items. Usually they have a no refund, no trying policy.

Depending on material used and quality, you can get t-shirts from 100 baht onwards. Lots of dresses, workdress etc.

We combed the building from top to bottom, well... almost. Haha, then it's time to go for coffee break. Found out that the coffee prices at Black Canyon Coffee is about half-priced of what you get at the hotel.


cafe mocha for 65 baht only


smoked chicken sandwich @75 baht


After all the shopping, we unloaded the things at the hotel before proceeding to MBK for dinner.


passed by Siam Discovery




is this a sharksfin restaurant or a cinema?


We were walking towards MBK, when I spotted these interesting signboards. Didn't know the fins had nationality...


Penang sharkfins anyone?


Bangkok sharkfins eh?


We're eating steamboat that night, so MK Restaurant is where we'll be dining.






It's not a buffet, and you're to order the items ala-carte style to put inside the steamboat. Vegetables, meat, seafood, dim sum.. take your pick.


plate of assorted vege for 4 pax @ 199 baht


prawn dumplings, beef, pork liver n kidney, spinach noodles..


bubbling pot


While the roasted duck at MK was nice, it's nothing compared to the one we had at Chinatown.


wall deco inside the restaurant


One surprise attraction (well, surprising for me 'coz I didn't know they had this!) was the MK dance routine. The one at MBK was quite nice.




After dinner, we were supposed to go happy hour. But unfortunately, it rained heavily. And at the same time, I had tummyache. What misfortune. Ha ha ha... So back to the hotel, it was.

Bangkok 18th July - Part II

Okie.. after Chatuchak, we went to the Farmer's Market which is just nearby. Go down the Kamphaeng Phet MRT station, and go towards Exit 3. The Farmer's Market is also known as "Or Tor Kor" or some say, "Aw Taw Kaw". Apparently, it is a high-end market where the price of the product is said to be 3 times higher than normal. It's very 'HC' (high-class), you know. Haha! Can read more here.


go inside this station, and towards Exit 3 to go to Aw Taw Kaw...


Interesting to note that going inside the MRT, you will pass by scanner for security check. Inside the MRT, there's some sort of space with seats where you can rest your tired feet. There were some shops around too. That relax space does have our Youth Park vibe...


resting tired feet, and showing off purchases from Chatuchak


cool lightings


outside Farmer's Market


exotic red fruit, and durians that has no smell!


impressive array of mangoes


There were many stalls selling similar fruits/dry goods, so take your time to look around. Think the prices will hover around almost similar range too. You can try the dried goods before buying. Bought a pack of dried anchovies flavored with curry leaves for 50 baht. Many cuttlefish goods too.


feel free to look around


looking at dried goods such as durian crisps...


The Farmer's Market was quite clean, dry and spacious. So it was nice walking around there. After that, we decided to go to Yaowarat (Chinatown) for dinner. As usual, our preferred mode of transport.. take cab!




many shark fins and birdnest restaurants...




this section felt like pasar malam but selling food


Went around shopping for porky food stuff to buy back as souvenir, and having done that, Jasmine suggested a restaurant for our dinner. It was a small shop, with a French chef beckoning you to go into the restaurant. A French chef, in a Chinese restaurant, in Thailand?? Haha, interesting enough!


peculiar manner to arrange the bowl


restaurant interior


The waitresses seemed to be of Thai national but speaks Mandarin. We ordered sharks fin (2 claypot 500 baht each to share amongst 4 of us), a small plate of roasted duck (120 baht), kang kong (morning glory) small for 100 baht, crab bee hoon, 2 small bowl of birdnest and chrysanthemum tea. Total bill was less than 3000 baht. About SGD$25 per pax. Word of caution, the chrysanthemum tea if you want the sweet one, was overly sweet. So do tell them to go easy on the sugar next time!


add the tau geh




morning glory


yummy roasted duck


crab bee hoon


firm flesh, beautiful color.. but tasteless...


The crab bee hoon was very tasty as the essence of the crab and all flavors were absorbed into the bee hoon. However, the crab meat itself was quite bland thereafter. But towards the bottom of the pot, the bee hoon was very very salty! They used pork fats to cook together with the bee hoon. Heheh, that's why tasty!


bird nest


After dinner, we went back to the hotel and had coffee at the cafe, called "Bakery". It opens from 8am till 10pm.


inside the cafe


We were there at about 930pm, so not much cakes or breads left. Prices for coffee starts from about 150 baht onwards. I liked the Thai iced tea. Nice!


Thai iced tea


After that, we retired to our respective rooms. Tired...coz we have been awake since the wee hours of the morning...

Bangkok 18th July - Part I

Woke up at 430am to catch the 715am plane. Flying by Jetstar so gotta reach Changi Terminal 1 by 620am latest. Of course HS and Cherlyn can saunter in slowly as their house is just 15 to 20 minutes away from the airport... hahaha!


travel light!


Reached airport at 620am. Ade and Jasmine was already queueing up to check-in. So very soon, we were onboard the plane.






Quite liked Jetstar seats, because I felt it is meant more for Asian build. At least my head can rest nicely on the headrest... Had some delay though. So the aircraft didn't get to take off till about half hour later.


waiting to taxi out


Nothing much to see outside the window. Cloudy day, so mostly surrounded by fluffy white.




It's a 2 hour flight from SG to BKK, so we reached Bangkok at approximately near 10am SG time.


land ahoy!


Went to take metered taxi, but was told that 5 pax need to get 2 small cabs or 1 big one. So of course we chose the big one, and hence, we became acquainted with Peter (Pithuk). He's quite a nice chap and speaks quite good English (plus he's cute too! Waahahaa!). Our cab fare costs 700 baht from airport to hotel. He took one highway toll less ('coz it's Sunday, so no traffic), so our total fare was 655 baht. Then he offered to take us from hotel to airport on our day of departure for 500 baht. He said, "No deposit required. Just based on trust." Haha!

Reached Amari Watergate Hotel, and we managed to check-in to 1 room first, as the other 2 rooms were not ready yet. As we waited for our rooms, our bags were myteriously taken away and we were not given any tag to identify our bags. I've been wondering how they'll know which room to take it to later on... and haven't been able to figure that out yet. But yes, our bags were indeed taken to our room #1 thereafter. Cool! So gave the bell-boy a tip for bringing our bags up.

After that, it's off to find food! Platinum Fashion Mall is just opposite the hotel, so we went there.


yummy food for early lunch


flattened chicken satay


raw salad doused in sugary vinegar


Platinum Mall Food Center

Too bad didn't take any picture of the tom yum and beef noodles... After lunch, we went to Chatuchak market to walk walk. Took a cab from hotel.


Sunday traffic, overhead bridge towards Chatuchak


First impression of Chatuchak was that it looked quite cramped. No offence but it feels almost like squatters area. Many many stalls inside.


inside one of the lanes


from outer 'main' street


food and drinks vendors


interesting vehicle with i think tourist on it? not sure...


At some point in time, we decided to split into 2 groups to look at different things. So we made the clock tower as the landmark to come back to.


clock tower


However, we still managed to lose our way... Hahaha!


scenaries when we were lost...


passing by more than 1 time...


public toilet


Luckily the public toilet was not as bad as I thought it will be. Better than some public toilet in Malaysia la... cost about 2 baht per entry I think.


found a secret world! Which in fact, was a shop selling nice smelling stuffs.. but more importantly, we borrowed their seats to sit for a while haha


----------------------- to be continued ------------------------