one night in bangkok...

...makes the hard man humble....tra la la...

to be sure, it wasn't merely 1 night but 2...in a rather crappy hotel to boot...but then again, it was free :)) just have to make sure the next time we go, it ain't gonna be anything less than the pathumwan princess...lousy bed (saggy), lousy pillows (softer than jello), a less than pristine and spacious bathroom (sardinecan-like) and a weirder smell than my fart in the room...all this added up to 2 nights of rather disturbed sleep and a yet another crick in the neck for me...

at least bangkok this time round was DAMNNNNNN FUN!!!

we go in to the hotel at around slightly past noon on saturday morning, checked in, washed up a bit and ran straight out to MBK...thoughts and images of the food at the foodcourt were already swirling around crazily in my head...it was a mere 2 skytrain stops away (ratchathewi to national stadium) and actually is walkable (couldn't be much more than 800m)....but you know me lah, LEZY arma :)) the long and short of lunch that day was i stuffed my face with kuay chap, fried chicken rice and orrr luak :) i was so full after that i could barely keep consciousness to walk around MBK..haha...

we trolled MBK the whole afternoon until my feet were completely knackered and falling off...followed by siam discovery centre, siam centre and a bit of siam paragon (more about the paragon later)...must say, hi fashion is alive and well in bangkok...many funky chicken shops selling very nice clothes, albeit at the premium over singapore even :O after all that walking and wearing out of the feet, we decided to head for our favourite foot massage place near the novetel siam square....AAAAAHHHHHHHH bliss, i tell you...to get off my feet and have them pampered...nearly spurted from the ecstasy and the relief...

after 2 hours of foot pampering (in which i dozed off intermittently), we headed for the 2nd of our food objectives - BAN KHUN MAE restaurant about 80m away from the novotel. the missus and i discovered this place 2 years ago when we ran out of ideas where to eat...serves great authentic thai food in a rustic ambience...good food at a decent price indeed...for the both of us, a tasting menu adding tom yum goong and drinks, it was a trifling 688 baht or less than 30 sing ber...WOOOT!!!!!

after the stupendous meal, continued with a little bit of shopping but we were already quite tired out with the long day, and therefore around 2230, decided to call it a night...since the next morning was.......

CHATUCHAK!!!!

the last time i went to CTC, i barely lasted 2 hours in the intensely hot, moisture-laden atmosphere...wifey was most displeased with my capitulation...therefore this time, i had promised myself that it would be different...and it was...

the "climate" was much better...more temperate, less moisture and lo and behold, a breeze wafting thru the alleyways...HALLELUJAH!!! ok, so we actually bought less stuff this time as compared to the last (where we were shopping for decorative household stuff having just moved in to our apartment)...but we saw more, experienced more, bargained harder and oh, definitely walked much longer....about 4 hours...after we accomplished what we came to buy and do, we decided to head back to the hotel to drop off our buys and wash up a bit...

20 minutes later, we were off again....this time by skytrain to emporium to look for greyhound cafe...for their oh so juicy cheeseburger and kickass prawn bisque...and it was just as i remembered from 2 years back...wonderful wonderful food in simple chic surroundings and great value for money (if you convert back to sing ber lah)...there's nowhere in singapore that you can get a ground beef cheeseburger with the works (fried, strips of bacon, salad) and a succulent bisque with loadsa fresh shrimp for all of less than 12 sing bucks, man....no sirree!!! :)

we did some more shopping in emporium...well, actually, WINDOW-SHOPPING ONLY...as we realised that buying imported stuff in thailand actually costs more than in singapore (shockers!)...it was nice to browse though :) then we paid another visit to our fave massage place...then went for coca suki steamboat buffet at siam centre

and the same night, we continued with the shopping rampage at suan lum night bazaar...trolling every single aisle of the place....compared to 2 years back, it is definitely more happening and there are at least 25% more shops and tourists...i tell you now, the next time i renovate my place or move to a new one, i will go back to suan lum and ctc to shop for furniture and fittings...saw soooooo many miind-boggling and eye-dazzling pieces there :)

ended off the night with 2 paulaner dark beers....ahhh, steam!!!

now it's time to say goodbye to bangkok.........wait, but not until 1945hrs on the 3rd day!!! but since we had accomplished most of our goals for this trip, we took things a little easier (also since the accumulated stress on our feet was devastating! haha)...woke up comparatively late (around 8am), took a leisurely breakfast, packed up and checked out earlier...left our stuff at the concierge (after giving them very strict instructions to avoid pecharing all our breakable celadon pottery)...and headed back to siam paragon...

siam paragon is the newest and hippest shopping centre in bangkok...very much akin to what ngee ann city was (and i think still is) for singapore...it's a massive building filled with hi end shops and anchor-tenanted by a very large shopping chain that i still can't figger out is called EMPRESS or PARAGON....suffice to say that it was a big store (store somehow does not do justice to the size and array of goods they have on sale)...MASSIVE more like it...

the best thing here????? a ferrari ENZO, a lambo MURCIELAGO, a lambo GALLARDO SPYDER and a bentley ARNAGE on display!!!! i pretty much told the wife to go go go....go shopping/walking....just come back and get me an hour later!!! we had actually walked thru the paragon on the 1st day but only partially due to the feet breaking...and i had seen the murcielago...this morning, unfortunately, it was still covered up...thankfully, the enzo, the spyder and the arnage were not! i took sooooo many pictures and lost sooooo much saliva :))

for lunch, we headed back to MBK....just couldn't resist the cheap and good food :) then walked around a bit more and giving up, went back to the hotel to wait for the bus to the airport...all bushed...

to cut a long story short, got back last night home around 2345 hrs after a tedious flight filled with fellow ugly singaporean shoppers and ah mmms...unpacked a bit and knocked out!!!

ah, it's nice to be able to sleep in my own comfy bed again....zzzzzzzz :))

so that was my weekend....how was yours? =D