Thailand - Bangkok

1st January 2016

I spent the first day of 2016 away from Singapore in Bangkok with my favourite boy :P He spent a month there during his training, so I didn't do any research before going. Just had to tag along haha. We initially planned to visit during Christmas but tickets were so expensive! Then right after we booked our tickets, the news started reporting about ISIS threats in Thailand and we almost cancelled the trip. So much turmoil before we even started the journey.

We set off at about 11am and touched down at 12+pm (Bangkok time). Just before we reached, there was super strong turbulence and I thought we were going to die T.T Fortunately we landed safely. We took Airasia, so it arrived at the Don Mueang Airport, which is about 40 minutes away from city centre by taxi.

I headed straight for the visa counter to get my visa-on-arrival. The process was generally simple, just required a photo, an application form (either print or get from there), passport, and 1000 baht visa fees. Actually each person must have at least 10,000 baht cash to qualify, but no one checked. We bought 7-day unlimited data plan (4Gb) for 390 baht each I think?

We arrived at our hotel at about 2pm. The taxi driver didn't know where exactly it was, so he dropped us off at Pratunam Soi 19 and left us to figure out ourselves. We walked to and fro a few times before spotting it LOL. It was so inconspicuous. It's called Ideal Hotel Pratunam which claims to be 3-star but was totally not? LOL. The building was super small. 3 nights cost S$273 which was pretty cheap though. Lc wanted to stay at Amari Watergate but it cost 200 bucks more and I thought it wasn't very worth it since we only needed a bed to sleep in.

I thought the room was okay, 21sqm, with a king sized bed. There's no view outside so don't choose this if you want a nice view. The best parts about this hotel were that they provided unlimited bottles of mineral water and its location was perfect, literally right beside the Pratunam Market and just across the street from the Platinum Mall. And despite being in the city centre, it was not noisy at all.

If you have a higher budget, I think Amari Watergate and Hotel GLOW Pratunam are great choices. Shall try them next time!

We dropped our luggage and headed out for lunch. The Pratunam Market was closed that day since it was New Year. Along Soi 19, we came across some stalls selling these! Lc's favourite mooping (basically bbq pork). Cheap and good!

As we were super hungry, we couldn't be bothered to look for food so we ate at the Platinum Mall food court. It was not bad, there were a lot of choices, but had to get a card to make purchases (don't worry though since the money inside can be refunded). Lc got a duck rice while I got this pork glass noodle. I love Thai glass noodle, it's super chewy unlike those in Singapore.

We decided to get back to our room for a short rest first, and on the way back, we bought a crepe! So many people were queuing for it so I thought it should be really good? It didn't live up to my expectations though haha.

After ample rest, we went shopping! At Platinum Mall! :D It was already about 6pm (too much nap) and the shops were closing soon (and half of them weren't even open in the first place), so I briefly scanned through so that I knew where to come back to the next day.

The night market started once the sky turned dark. It was right outside the mall. The ambience was pretty good over there.

Some of those stuff are so cute and very affordable! I bought a new phone cover for 100 baht. We walked in the direction towards Central World and came across 2 or 3 zichar stalls along the way selling a variety of seafood. I was so tempted by these huge prawns!! Can't get over my obsession with prawns hahaha. All the stalls were so popular and crowded.

Don't they just look so yummy?! :P

We actually wanted to get street food from the market outside Central World for dinner, but somehow there wasn't anything there when we arrived D: I think they had to move out of that area (found some of the stalls along the road outside this enclosed area) to make way for all the Christmas decorations.

There were many stalls selling fruit juice! I saw pomegranate, orange, lime, and kiwi. We tried pomegranate and orange during our few days there and THEY ARE AWESOME. Must buy!! Even though the bottles are kind of mini.

Since we couldn't eat street food, lc decided to bring me to Nana to have zichar. He had eaten there before so there was quality assurance. The BTS ride from Chit Lom to Nana was 25 baht. The zichar place was about 5-10 minutes walk from the station, in the direction of Chit Lom, so it was super easy, just follow the long lane of street stalls below the BTS track.

There were 2 zichar side by side, and we went for the one on the right. I guess they should be similar in quality and price. We ordered a big fish (200 baht), squid with salted egg, asparagus, and of course a watermelon juice because you just can't miss out on the super tasty juices in Bangkok!

They also had lobsters!!

Satisfying dinner!

I was so full after dinner, and lc brought me to see the bars nearby. Nana is quite famous for their bars and clubs, and I think 90% of the people you would see there are angmohs with a local babe or transsexuals. It's worth taking a look, and grabbing a drink to experience the 'full package'. Hahaha.

Smaller (but still big) prawns! 5 for only 100 baht!! 

 We took the BTS back to Siam. Siam and Chit Lom seemed somewhat equidistant from our hotel.

Cute elephants in Siam Paragon

Super cute ice cream for 80 baht each outside Platinum Mall!!! I got the paw (Milk & Cream) one :P Loved it!

It was a long day for us, and we decided to reward ourselves with a foot massage to end the day. 2 streets down from our hotel, at Soi 15, was a massage street with numerous well-known parlours. We chose the one with reasonable crowd but no queue, called Foot Haven Massage, apparently managed by Singaporeans. 1-hr costs just 250 baht! What a good deal :) The masseuse was pretty good, and her massage involved a lot of calves and thighs so I really liked it.

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2nd January 2016

I didn't think we could wake up in time for breakfast, but we did! Hahaha. It was just a simple breakfast, but sufficient.

The Pratunam Market was finally open, and we had a short tour around it. I'm guessing it's similar to the Chatuchak Market (we didn't go because it's probably too crowded and hot for me), meaning it's cheaper than Platinum Mall. I didn't see anything I wanted though, so we quickly left.

Our plan for the day was to visit Khao San for the supposedly BEST Pad Thai in Bangkok, and then visit the Grand Palace. It was quite a long ride from Pratunam to Khao San, about half an hour on taxi. Khao San is also quite a famous area, popular with angmohs and it wasn't difficult to see why. Many pubs lined the street.

It turned out that the famous Pad Thai was maybe 10 min away from here, and we didn't bother to walk there under the scorching sun, so we picked a street stall selling the same thing. Just 60 baht for one Pad Thai with seafood! So cheap and yummy!

As it was still early afternoon and way too hot for the Grand Palace, we had a drink in Macs to wait.

It was about a 15-min walk to the Grand Palace, past the National Stadium.

The Ministry of Defense was opposite the Palace. 

You have to wear clothes that cover your shoulders and knees in order to enter, so your safest bet would be jeans and t-shirt. I wore shorts, so I was stopped at the gate. We crossed the road to find a place to change into jeans but couldn't find any washrooms, so I ended up just wearing jeans over my shorts lol.

We stopped by the street stalls to get some ice cream :P I got a packet of pineapple too, and they were godly!!

So cute!! Fried quail eggs! Too bad we were too full.

We finally made it into the Palace and started to roam around. Basically we didn't really know where we were going, so we just randomly walked around. There are 2 sections in the Palace, and the second area is so pretty, you have to go there. (But note that once you enter this section, you can no longer turn back). 

Everything was so gold, and the architectural designs were so intricate, demonstrating the Thai culture at its best.

We also checked out the Chao Phraya River to see how's the construction progress for Wat Arun afterwards. Just a short walk from the Palace. I think its constructions are complete, so can visit if interested.

Long queue for river cruise

We were too tired by then so we cabbed back to Pratunam. I finally got out of those jeans!! So hot.

Fried insects ><

We decided to have lunch at the zichar just below our hotel as it seemed to be quite popular as well. However, the price was a lot higher than the one at Nana. Each dish costs about 60-100 baht more... Finally got to eat my prawns! :D The vege and green curry were really good too.

Lc brought me to the sky bar at Centara Grand, right above the Central World shopping mall. It was at the 55th floor, so the view was really great and it was so windy up there. Drinks were not cheap though, about the same as Singapore.

Had a good time there, and despite being full, we went to look for mango sticky rice for supper! There is a stall outside the famous Kaitorn chicken rice. We got a small one for 60 baht. It was awesome!!! This is my favourite Thai food so far :D

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3rd January 2016

Sunday was all about shopping and eating! We went to the Platinum Mall to do more shopping in the morning. I spent about 2000 baht altogether haha. Got 4 dresses, 1 skirt, 4 tops.

We had the Kaitorn chicken rice for lunch. It's only 2 SGD!! The chicken was soso in my opinion, but the rice was really good!! Very fragrant but not too hard or soggy. The soup was super good too!

I really wanted to try the Shibuya Honey Toast at After You Cafe so our next stop was one of the outlets in Central World, Level 5. We got a queue number, and there were about 30 people ahead of us, so we walked around to take a look at other restaurants and cafes.

There was a huge crowd surrounding this particular shop, and it turns out that they were making these candies, from scratch. We stood around for a long while to figure out what pattern they were making, but couldn't tell until it was done LOL. They kindly gave out some candies to their loyal audience :P

After about half an hour, it was finally our turn!!! (Note that if you miss your queue, you have to queue again :/) So excited!

We only ordered a Thai Milk Tea and a Shibuya Honey Toast. The milk tea came first! But you can already see the cup of honey behind :D

After quite a long wait, it was finally here!!!! And I tell you, this is the BEST dessert I've ever eaten. Hahaha. It was soooooo good we finished it in 5 minutes.

After our super short afternoon tea time, (result of eating way too fast T.T) we decided to go to the MBK Mall at National Stadium Station to get some traditional goodies for friends and family.

We didn't have much money left as we had only brought about 500 SGD. Lc refused to buy anything previously but today he bought 2 shirts and a belt. We had less than 3000 baht in our pockets by then. Poor souls hahaha.

MBK Mall is pretty big as well, and we found some nice snacks to bring home. There's this tom yam rice cracker which is so good! And I also got 2 packets of cashew nuts (one is sweet with sesame, the other is tom yam flavoured) for my mum since they were only 8 SGD for a big packet! In total we spent about 1000 baht.

There were 5 stalls side by side selling the exact same things LOL. 

After shopping, we were trying to decide what to have for dinner. I wanted tom yam soup, but upon discovering this nice bunch of street food stalls outside MBK, I immediately wanted to eat here instead.

Looked real good but didn't have enough stomach to try.

Mussels with egg!

First thing I bought!! My favourite pig trotter and intestines hahaha. 

All for 100 baht :D

It's a pity I didn't try these!! Super cute mini pineapples!

Fried squid that looked bland but tasted good!

We went home feeling bloated. Rested till 10+ and decided to get a body massage with our last bit of money. Having seen some recommendations online, we went to get a Thai oil massage at the Watergate Spa, which was located in between Soi 19 and Amari Watergate, on the second floor. 500 baht per person. I thought it was reasonable but not fantastic (I still prefer Thai massage) but lc claims it's the best massage he's gotten so decide for yourself hahaha.

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4th January 2016

We woke up for the hotel breakfast so that we didn't have to eat much for lunch. We only had about 500 baht left for taxi and lunch LOL.

The taxi to airport was about 170 baht only by meter, and we had Macs for lunch :D

I really enjoyed this trip, especially because the weather wasn't too hot. My biggest regret was probably not having enough stomach for more food. I didn't even try Tom Yam soup can you believe it!

Other than that, my biggest takeaway from this trip is that never ever take taxis that do not use the meter. You could be spending 2-3 times more than necessary. Tuktuks are also extremely expensive, and honestly they're nothing special. You get loads of that in China countryside for a fraction of the price LOL.

Ok, that's it for now. This marks the beginning to more adventures around the world in 2016 :D