Wednesday, September 19, 2007

something to look forward to

haven't really had time to sit down and blog properly.

work sucks as usual, past two weeks have been tiring rushing for deadlines, preparing for meetings, doing project, fundraising etc. for me, being tired is ok, being frustrated isn't, and i'm frustrated w my boss (who isn't?) and now got a new source of frustration: a colleague who's been newly assigned to the same project, doesn't wanna pull his own weight, asks way too many questions, says things like "the project is still in it's very initial stages..." totally wrong as i've been doing alot of shit for it...

but all the busyness is bearable, because coming up is my Switzerland-Paris-Amsterdam trip! have been dreaming abt europe since last year, but nothing really happened until recently... so now's a mad rush to confirm everything b4 tj leaves for aberdeen on course this friday. so many things to do! get swiss pass, book hostel in every single place we're staying at, book internal flights, confirm my europe ticket (this is one of those ocassion i'm glad i work in my company, free ticket!), figure out where to go and what to do...

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Bangkok 2007

A post about our Bangkok Trip.

23 August 2007

Woke up early in the morning to take cab to Budget Terminal, to catch Tiger Airways flight to BKK. Spent quite a bit of time duty-free shopping before we caught the flight, it was not too bad, no food no nothing but plane is new, seats are comfy, price is cheap, so no complaints there.

Landed at the new Thai airport, shan't attempt to spell the name, didn't really like the place cos I find the workmanship quite shoddy and everything. Hopped on a cab to Asia Hotel, our home for the next few days. The hotel's decor is really quite dated, but it's pretty comfy, price-wise ok (approx SGD80 per night for 2 ppl), and location is good (one BTS station away from SIAM).

Decided to go shopping around MBK area. Went around MBK, Siam Centre, Siam Paragon. Didn't buy anything cos quite atas, but had fun just look-seeing, check out the pictures:

yummy lunch at MBK food court. Beef noodles (salty but good) and pad thai!

we saw this advertisement for a bra shop there. super hillarious!

Siam Paragon has this area filled with fancy car showrooms, so we were happily taking photos of luxury cars.
a canary yellow hummer
Ferraris

Lambo

Enough of window shopping in posh places, we headed off to suan lum night bazaar by public transport. It was tiring walking there, not to mention slightly confusing.


The infamous Patpong area, didn't check it out at night though, but the signboards are already super sleazy.

Dinner at Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Pad Thai, kangkong, green curry and tom yum.


Suan Lum is really quite a good place to shop. Good mix of shops which are pretty spacious, but must be careful what you buy cos alot of stuff can be bought at Chatuchak for alot cheaper. Pleased with our buys and since we were very tired, we headed back to rest.

24 August 2007
Sightseeing morning, headed down to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho by the scenic route (Chao Phraya Express). The river is really very dirty.



On the boat, there are safety floats just in case of an emergency. If you look closely, they're really floats. Not even life vests!

Wat Arun, across the river from Wat Pho. We didn't visit there though, but it looked lovely from our angle.


Wat Pho, with the famous sleeping Buddha.

Walked on foot from Wat Pho to Grand Palace. The weather was super hot, and I was so dehydrated and tired from all the walking. At Grand Palace, it was tons and tons of shrines with elaborate designs, very pretty! But it was really very tiring.


After walking for very long, the weather was getting to us. We hopped on a cab to Khao San Road, a backpackers area, with lotsa ang mohs there and some shopping too. Atmosphere was quite laidback too. Before we came, I already had a plan of buying a backpack for travelling purposes. So we looked around here for an ideal one. Ended up buying 2 (a 60 litre for me and a 40 litre for TJ) for only SGD 50. Cheap!

Khao San Road
SawadeeJun

Headed back to keep the giant backpacks, then went shopping around Pratunam area. Platinum mall was interesting, but they closed early, so we headed off for dinner. Ended up in some shopping mall, where we had two separate dinners, both in very typically thai fast food chains.

In particular, this place Yum Saap, with a deceptively cute smiley face logo, had this killer Tom Yum soup that got both of us surrenderring! (the Coconut freeze is very good though)

Following that, we went supermarket shopping, paid a visit to the Erawan shrine, and went back to zzz.

25 August 2007

Chatuchak day! Didn't think I'd like shopping in a squashed environment whereby you're bound to get lost, but I enjoyed myself totally. TJ did too! Good food, great shopping, great prices. In fact, my best authentic thai food experience was there.

Preparing the food.
Grilled pork salad, with beef vermicelli soup. Yum yum!

Had takeaway friend tanghoon too. They put in lots of raw beansprouts (Shuyun will definitely hate it) but it was very nice!

Bushed and starting to run out of money, we headed back to dump our stuff, and went in search for tidbits to bring home, a good thai restaurant and thai massage to soothe our aching muscles.


to take stock of our trip, check out our purchases!

26 August 2007

Packed up to go home. Pls do not take AirAsia, had friends telling us not to, but we decided it can't be that bad. Well it was, the plane was very old, complete with old vinyl seats. Quite scary actually. So yes. Should have listened to their advice.

Reached SG safely, tired but absolutely satisfied. Very fun trip with my TJ! =)