I'm back! Finally finding the time to update this space after exams and a shitty semester. All that aside with my semester's reflections chucked into another post, I've been meaning to blog about my short trip to Bangkok last week.
I made a mental note to learn how to use the complicated DSLR, in order to try to take some nice pictures while in Bangkok. It's never too late to try, right? Countless of times when we're on a family trip, it was always my dad that had the handycam permanently glued to his right hand. But as he's grown older and we've grown up, he now uses his right hand to hold onto my mother's shoulders for support because of his hip and knee problems acting up, due to the excessive walking in Bangkok. Hence, Josh and I decided to step up our photography game by just a bit. Documenting travels is not an easy feat.
It's not much, and I wasn't expecting much, but I just wanted to capture and process photos that were reminiscent to the things we felt and saw in Bangkok, despite the short trip.
Bangkok was a whirlwind of experiences and packed with overpowering stimuli from all directions. From the crazy traffic that knows no rules, to the old non-air conditioned buses and expensive cars that simultaneously prowled on the roads, I felt that it was difficult to strike a balance in Bangkok. Right next to the modern, multi-storey shopping malls, an array of disorganised street stalls were set up and vendors were all geared up with their "hello"s in 148492485293 languages, an attempt to attract tourists. I guess that's the beauty of Bangkok though, an organised mess. And I love organised messes.
Despite a short 2 hour flight away from Singapore, it was interesting to see how cohesion occurs between a country, its culture and its people. Being separated by just a few seas and ruled by different governments, it led to many behavioural and cultural differences between the Thais and Singaporeans. It's always good to learn and absorb, no?
Prior to the trip, I spent a good chunk of time researching on places to hit up in Thailand. And apparently, this wanton mee stall kept popping up on so many blogs, I'm talking about pages on Google search, and even my friends who were avid fans of Thailand highly recommended Sabx2 Wanton Mee.
I mean just look at that. Nothing beats wanton mee served with a generous amount of pork lard, essentially pork FAT. I was never a fan of lard, and never will be, but there's something about the wanton mee being cooked with it that made it so tasty.
The Verdict:
The eatery was flooded with Singaporeans, I honestly felt like I was back home and even the aunty taking the orders could speak fluent chinese and singlish. Perhaps this realllllly compliments the Singaporean palate. So if you're a hipster I-just-want-to-live-and-eat-like-a-local type of traveller, this may not be ideal.
Value wise, this definitely isn't the cheapest bowl of wanton mee that you can get in Thailand. On top of that, the portions are small (don't be fooled by the ginormous bowls). The 4 of us had 5 bowls in total, plus an order of the braised pork - which was also delicious, and I reckon we're pretty big eaters.
It was satisfying and comforting to see and hear things that were familiar to home though, and to me, this is certainly worth a try. It's literally within, or right next to Pratunam market, which is also about a 5 minute walk to Platinum Mall. Eat and then shop. It all works out.
After conquering Platinum Mall, the new and old one, we had a good lunch at Som Tum Nua - another highly raved about restaurant near Siam Centre. The only thing worth mentioning about that place is the fried chicken. The papaya salad, which was supposedly one of their house specialities sadly didn't impress. We didn't manage to take pictures because a) We're a pretty large sized family and it was too crammed up for us to even take off our backpacks, let alone whip out the DSLR b) It was about 34 degrees outside and we were too hot and sweaty to do anything else besides down the cups of Thai Iced Tea we ordered.
Referring back to point b, since it was that hot, and given that we had a bit of luck, we somehow managed to find another After You Cafe behind Siam Square! It was on our itinerary but was scheduled after dinner, at the Siam Paragon outlet. But since we stumbled across this outlet and given the intense heat burning our entire bodies that afternoon, we unanimously decided to try out the cafe then.
OMGGGGG. I am so glad Josh decided to change to the macro lens so that we could take these frigging amazing close-up shots of the food. It was a refreshing tea-time snack for us, given the unforgiving heat.
We had the top favourites: Lava Cake and Shibuya Honey Toast. Obviously, because we're a family of 4 but we eat like double the portions of any normal family, we ordered a bunch of drinks off the menu, followed by the Ferrero Rocher Toast and Strawberry Mille Crepe Cake.
The Verdict:
From the above picture, it can be seen that papa tan looks all happy and lol-ing at something. You would think it was because of the sugar high or satisfaction from the desserts. Maybe. But it was mainly because we ordered a bit too much and I suggested we play Rock, Paper, Scissors, best of three, and the loser has to finish up the remaining food. I lost. I guess that's why he was so happy.
The food there was definitely overpriced (just like any cafe, to be honest). The drinks were a bit too sweet and Josh commented that the Ferrero Rocher Toast was an overkill, and that must say quite a lot given that he has a sweet tooth. The place was flooded with tourists and there were only a sparse amount of locals patronising the cafe.
The cakes and toasts were crafted for your likes on instagram, for sure. Maybe that's why so many of us are so desperate to try this place out. But I'm certain that there are better options that we have yet to discover in Bangkok. This whole trip was circulated around the whole just-gonna-do-what-typical-tourists-do mentality, I guess that's why we ended up in all the "touristy" spots.
Not complaining though, I did surpass the 100-like mark on instagram. :-) #validation
We then spent the remaining time we had tearing it up in Siam Center. Thai designers are the bomb, y'all. They had a huge range of styles catering to different preferences, from galaxy prints to classy polo dresses, to crazy coloured mesh dresses, they have it all. The best thing was that all the shops I wanted to go to were having 50-70% off (OMG). We came during the right time because they were having their annual sale. :-)
We also managed to bump into some Thai celebs that were attending an event in one of the shops. Josh and I walked past the actor that clearly had 40 girls behind him all dreamy-eyed, and Josh asked, "Who the hell is THAT?" a bit too loudly. I pushed him and we RAN. 2 of us definitely couldn't go against 40 wtf-how-do-you-not-know-him-i-love-u-oppa fangirls.
We then had dinner at Geryhound Cafe. The food was interesting and the menu was filled with choices, because it was Thai-Western fusion food. But honestly it wasn't mindblowingly delicious, nor is it something that we would die to go back for. Prices were reasonable, given that this restaurant is opened by the creative directors of Greyhound - a local Thai designer brand. The ambience was classy and the staff were relatively fluent in English.
So that concludes the first full day we had in Thailand!
I'm really glad that I'm finally starting to head in the intended direction of this blog. It's been a bit slow and unsteady with the lack of confidence and inspiration, but I just decided to push through and if not now, then when? Major props to Bangkok for being so beautiful as it is. :'-)
Hope you guys enjoyed this!
Psst I also started writing freelance for TheSmartLocal and recently had my first ever article published. I can't even begin to explain how satisfied I felt seeing words that I wrote appear on their website. It is also very humbling to see many friends sharing the article and providing constructive feedback and supporting me. I never expected this whole thing to be this... good. Because I've never really studied how to write properly/eloquently, I always told myself that I wasn't worthy to try to even write and get my shit published, let alone paid for. But somehow, I managed to convince myself otherwise and went for this application. Heck, I'm so happy I did it.
Things are looking good and I am contented, as of now. This really makes up for the shitty results I received this semester. I can now tell myself I am shitty at the subjects I studied, but maybe not that crappy at writing these type of articles. Haha, just maybe. :-)
Part 2 will be up soon! I can't wait.
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