The long awaited trip for us to take a break, for Don (a break away from his forever ringing mobile phone) and me (a break from doing house chores). This is my third visit back to the Land of Smiles ever since our last trip in 2013, when I was still pregnant with Vera.
Before we made our way to the Airport Rail, we headed to get ourselves connected with a purchase of a prepaid sim.
Tip #1 : Stay connected at only $12 Sgd with one week of access to unlimited data usage. SCREAMS !! This is even cheaper than my monthly subscription. This sounds perfect for an Instagram-er like me to update on my social media page on the go.
Some friends told me that you can get the sim-card at 7-11 stores if you do not want to queue at the airport but we were pretty lucky not to be waiting in line. I'm not sure if 7-11 helps with the settings. But at airport, they set up and configure everything for us. No sweat if you do not know how to do it, just leave it to them to get you connected.
Nothing changed as we would usually take the Airport Rail Link to the nearest train station to get to our hotel. We chose to go back to Novotel Bangkok Platinum as per our last visit as the location of the hotel is very accessible to most of the major shopping mall.
This time, we alighted at Phaya Thai and managed to let the kids catch a glimpse of how the main traffic were being stopped so as to allow the train go across the road, along the tracks that lined.
We wasted no time, checked in, waited, dropped the luggage in our room and off we went. The kids knew that they were on vacay when I spotted to little monkeys jumping on the bed !
First stop,
Yaowarat (Chinatown of Bangkok). You will see lots of Chinese signboards around.
It is more advisable to take a taxi there as it is not of walking distance from the station to Yaowarat district.
Tip #2 : Be sure to ask the drivers if their taxis run on meter. We would only hop on IF they charge based on the meter reading.
Tip #3 : Always remember to bring along with you, a card of the hotel with it's address. From our experience, going to Yaowarat was easy but coming back may be a little challenging as not all drivers may know the location of the hotel. Most of the time, we have to show them the card.
Ready for some nice eats? I forgot to snap the name of the street. But this push cart stall is located opposite a 7-11 convenient stall (Along the same stretch as Hotel Royal Bangkok, Chinatown).
If you are standing at the entrance of Royal Chinatown Hotel, facing the main road, go towards your left. you should see the stall after 8 mins or less by foot. The location that appeared on the photo was Samphanthawong (Hope this helps with narrowing down your search)
Don came in May with his colleagues and he was told that this stall sells pretty nice bird nest drink at a pretty decent price and is usually generous in the serving. The lady can converse in slight hokkien or teochew and gave really generous serving of ginko as well. We even packed a few packs back to the hotel, chilled it and consumed it the next day.
Next stop, wanton mee ! Take this hotel as a guide, the shop that sells wanton mee is along the same stretch. Left or right, I really forgot as I was busy holding onto the kids and was a follower.
This shop is air conditioned, just look out for the red signboard.
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| yao4 hua2 li4 shi2 dian4 |
The portion may seem to be small and simple as it looked. The noodles were not those usual type we ate in Singapore. No chilli or dark soy sauce, it's plain noodles with no sauce at all. What made it nice was the texture of the noodles and the oil which was used to mix into the noodles ! It made the noodles very fragrant and on top of that, the noodles were topped with soft, tasty char siew and wantons. This is a winner ! Their crabmeat fried rice was equally nice as well !
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| Wanton Mee |
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| Fishmaw soup |
Infact, I was already full to the brim. But we went on to the third stop. Carry on reading if you are a fan of pig blood pudding ! It's just directly opposite the hotel I mentioned above.
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| Part of the menu |
One of my friends told me that this shops sells pretty delicious kway chap too !
If you know me long enough, you will know that I seldom take pork. But this braised pig trotters was really good. It may not look as appealing but it tasted really good and the meat was tender and rich in flavour. It did not have the usual pork smell, need I say more ? Of course, this went into my tummy as well.
We always called this "Zhu1 Zha2 Tang1" in mandarin aka "Ju Chap Tung" in Cantonese. Soup was really good ! It's peppery taste was just nice ! One word to describe "shiok" !
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| Zhu Chap Tung (In Cantonese) |
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| Pig Stomach Soup |
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| Best of the Best - Pig Blood Soup |
Pig blood was one of my childhood dish whenever I ordered the pig organ's soup. It's texture is like a piece of firm tofu but ever since they stopped selling in Singapore, it was not until about 2 decades later then I managed to find this delicacy in Bangkok on my third trip.
Thereafter, we made our way to the wholesale area, stalls that sells raw food lined the street. If you realized, Thais eat almost everything raw !
Tip #4: If you want lesser crowd at the wholesale centre, come early and the lanes were not as hot as compared to in the noon and you could still feel the cool air in the slightly air conditioned open lanes.
From fashion accessories, ladies handbags, stationeries, craft supplies etc, you can find them at really cheap price if you buy in bulk. I heard that more discount will be given if you are to shop there right in the middle of the night.
TIP #5: Wear bright and dress light! If you realised, Xav was wearing pretty luminous tees ? For safety reason, we brought all tees that were bright in colours so as to make things easier when we need to spot him should we lost him in the crowd. The wholesale market can be pretty crowded.
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| @ The airport |
These were some of my happy loots - hand sanitizer holders ! I have one each of Fear, Sadness and Anger to giveaway ! Read on !
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| Sanitizer holders that comes with a bottle of hand sanitizer. |
The shop where I shopped for Xav's stationeries.
In another gift shop, I found this set of rubber stamps. How I heart this set ! Apart from being able to make gift tags with these stamps, I can even use this set to stamp on plain papers in the future for Vera to practise her penmanship.
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| Rubber stamps |
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| Socks for school use. |
This was how crowded on the street itself. But I have to say that the Thais were good ! They were very patient when giving way and vice versa, motorists were pretty patient too while making their way through though some will give gentle horns.
We went with a list in mind of what to buy and in less than 2 hours, our bags were filled to the brim and at the same time with additions of several big bags in hand.
After unloading, we took a tuk tuk ride from our hotel to Siam Paragon. It's a complimentary service provided by the hotel to their guests.
Not as thrilling as those touristy tuk tuk but in terms of safety, this service provided was much safer.
Someone had her first tuk tuk ride !
We headed straight for desserts to cool ourselves down at
After You Co. located just right beside the supermarket.
Their thick toast with ice-cream. You will never go wrong going for original flavour.
Crepes
For the holicks and milo lovers ! Don't miss this ! We waited for a good 45 mins for this. Hidden surprises in the dessert !
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| Two-tone Kakigori |
Located at Siam Square 1, Level 4, Sombon Fried Curry Crab is a must try! This is surprisingly not spicy at all and even Vera loved it ! It's good enough to have those gravy over a bowl of white rice.
We ordered other dishes as well.
The grilled prawns were fresh and juicy !
Address : Phraram 1 Rd | 4F Siam Square One, Pattumwan, Bangkok 10330 , Thailand
In the same building, spotted this Hello Kitty Cafe ! But we did not went in as it's just after lunch. Hello Kitty lovers, you may want to check it out.
Everyone has been raving about MK Steamboat. I did not managed to find the restaurant during our last visit. So here we are ! It is also located in Siam Paragon. Hmm ... I find it normal though, nothing much to rave about.
Address: Phraram 1 Rd | 4F Siam Square One, Pattumwan, Bangkok 10330 , Thailand
The so-so only roast meat platter.
It's not a buffet, hence we ordered and ate enough and to save some space for other food. We took a slow walk back to the hotel after the dinner and randomly chance upon a Christmas light up along the way.
Took some random pictures with the very adorable Disney themed decoration.
Something to cool our bodies from the duper hot weather. Just right opposite the entrance of our hotel.
Our virgin attempt in buying street food for supper. We were concern about the hygiene and taste of the food before but decided to try it out. Not too bad ! The bbq food were pretty tasty !
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| Grilled prawns |
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| Remove the skin before eating, the meat was tender and moist ! |
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| Marinated wings |
MBK to me is like the Bangkok Version of Lucky Plaza. Bakers may be interested in this. If you are looking for cupcake holders or cookies holder. Go to MBK, Level 3. There is a shop "
555 PaperPlus" directly opposite Tokyo Departmental Store
Pretty nice to hold your bakes in these boxes and distribute as goodie packs.
Our 4D3N stay came to an end with just shopping and eating. This trip was planned just for the adults as the kids will be having loads of fun for the next 3 days on the Carribean Cruise.
We checked in early but flight was delayed, went to one of the restaurant thinking that I could get myself a bowl of nice Tom Yum Goong. Do not have high expectation at the airport. Seriously, this tasted like crap from one of the restaurants in the airport.
As for the kids, they had their fair share of shopping for their toys and indulged themselves in the desserts we had, especially for our little foodie. Goodbye Land of Smiles, we will be back !
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