Bangkok Day 4

Day 4 morning was spent moving our luggage from our friend's dad condominium to our hotel - Tango Vibrant Living Place, which was located just directly opposite Bayoke Sky Tower 2. On the way, I managed to snap some street photos of Bangkok from the taxi ride.

 The street just outside our hotel - 11 Soi Wattanawong. The tall building in front is Bayoke Sky Tower 2.

 A night shoot of our hotel

 A view of our room toilet

 And the nice room. All these for SGD$50/night

After settling into our hotel, it was time to meet our Thai friend - Pair, whom we met in USA while working in Cedar Point. *mds and I had arranged to meet her at BTS Mo-Chit, and after that, we were going to visit the local weekend market, Chatuchak (the local called it Jatujak or JJ market).

 A taste of Bangkok challenging traffic, where it is common to get stuck inside for 10-15 mins

 Pad Thai again for lunch in Chatuchak Market

 A view of Chatuchak stalls

Chatuchak Market really lives up to its name. Thousands of stalls are jammed pack inside it in Bugis Street style, so it is definitely a paradise for shoppers. The things on sale here are relatively cheap, and it is quite impossible to finish touring (or window-browsing) it in 1 day. As it is an open market, if the weather is accommodating, you will be fine shopping between the shops. But if it is a hot and sunny day, it can quite stuffy there by noon time.

By evening time, *mds and I had enough of Chatuchak, so we decided to shift location and gave a visit to Union Mall, which is located nearby.

I guess it is a culture/tradition of Thailand. For every shopping center that we had visited, there will always be a shrine like the photo above for people to pray to. I guess it is for the safety of the people and the shopping center? *mds and I ended the night bidding farewell to Pair at Union Mall, before we caught a taxi back to our hotel to rest.

Bangkok Day 3

Bangkok Day 3: Central World to conquer.

Woke up to another bright and sunny day, so *mds and I decided to visit the newly renovated Central World. The concept is something like Singapore Takashimaya, where they decided to bring in shops that are up-scale. With stomach growling, we decided to try out this Coca Suki Restaurant for our lunch.

 Seafood Steamboat Set - 800 baht

 Interior decoration of the shopping mall on its highest floor

 Can you imagine an ice skating ring right outside in the open on the 1st floor?

 And there is a Coldstone shop!! Yummy Ice-cream time!

 Simply loving it

 Front view of the Central World

And above here is a peek at the condominium that *mds and I stayed in. This will be the last night we stayed here, before moving to our hotel near the Pratunam area. It was quite exhaustive, spending the whole day inside Central World, but at least I got myself a nice looking Adidas Hoody. =)

Bangkok Night 1 & Day 2

Tiger Airways really live up to its bad reputation. *mds and I were supposed to go on a afternoon flight to Bangkok so we would have the night free to explore around our friend's dad condominium area (Thanks Eve's dad who loan out the apartment to us for a couple of days =)). But no... One month before we were supposed to fly, evil Tiger sent out an email about change of flight plans, and to our horror, our flight was pushed back by 6 hours! Well, no choice, since everything has already been booked, we have to accept it.

The budget terminal has sure undergone a major renovation since I last visited it in 2006. That was like 4 years ago? From only the bare old zinc roof structure back then, it has now added in quite some interior decoration, so the whole experience feels more lively now.

 Beautiful Clouds and Sunset after take off

By the time we reached the condominium (which was a good 45 mins taxi journey from the airport), it was already late in the night. With nothing to do, we retired for the night to begin our shopping trip for tomorrow. Waking up to a bright Thursday morning, to our delight, the condominium has a good scenery view of the Chao Phraya River, which is a major river in Thailand.

Image via Wikipedia

To start the day, *mds and I decided to visit a tailor shop at Sukhumvit Soi 11 which our friend has recommended for some tailor-made clothes.

 Thailand Street View

After having our measurements and cloth materials taken, we hit one of the shop along the street for some authentic Thai food!

 Pad Thai

Old Style Coke Bottle

After lunch, it is time for some shopping actions! First stop: Platinum Fashion mall. For the usual mode of transport, we decided to use the taxi. They are in abundance in Bangkok. Just a wave of your hand is enough to attract the attention of at least 3 taxi drivers along the road. The fare is pretty cheap either. An initial fee of 35 baht (roughly SGD$1.50) and every 500m jumps by 2 baht (SGD$0.09), so effectively, your whole taxi ride in Bangkok will cost you roughly 70baht (SGD$3.04). Is that cheap or what? =)

One important thing to note though: Always insist the driver charged by meter, or else you risk being on the chopping board. If the driver is too friendly with you, and they can speak some decent English, be very beware. The moment they say that your destination is not opened for some reason and they can bring you around some good and cheap shops, be on your high guard. Do not ever go to the shops they recommended, or else, you will find yourself on the chopping board pretty soon!

For the platinum Fashion Mall, it is like an engorgement of bugis street, except that they have 6 levels and each level contain some 300 small shops? Their clothes are pretty cheap, each one perhaps some 120baht (SGD$5) and if you buy 3 pieces, there will be discounts.  *mds and I shopped all the way until evening, stopped by Swenson's for some ice-cream dessert before heading back to the condominium.

The Platinum Fashion Mall again

sa-wat dee khrab

Back on 17-Nov-10

Happy birthday mds =)

5 Surprises for the day - Starting off from the day before

Next came the roses, with a star studded box

 

 Gone to the bottletree, to enjoy the cooling afternoon

 With some hot chilli crabs, as our dining companion!

 *paused* A overview of the bottletree park.

Visited the Causeway, for some social network.

And ended the day, with a feast of chocolate cake!

Hope you had enjoy the day, my dear princess.

Sleep well and tight into the cooling night.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

Yes, it is time to step up a bit. My first contact with it? This guy simply rocks! It made my current FX-01 seems amateur. More information about this guy can be found from the link below: http://www.dpreview.com/news/1007/10072110panasonicdmclx5.asp



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Detective Dee

Synopsis: When the mysterious deaths of many loyal subjects threaten the inauguration of Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) in 690 A.D, China's only female leader is forced to summon the infamous Detective Dee (Andy Lau) back from exile after she cast him out eight long years ago.

An average HK Gong Fu movie centered around Andy Lau, which is its only saving grace. With the exception of Andy Lau, the other characters in the movies feel under developed and fragmented. I could not really connect with them. The pace of the movie could well do to have slowed down a bit, giving more room for the audience to absorbed what is being shown. The final ending is quite a disappointment, with the death of the female lead, which I feel the director should not have let that happened.

Rate: 6/10

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• A Chinese Detective Story (online.wsj.com)

Reign of Assassins

Synopsis: Drizzle (Michelle Yeoh) has possessed the body of Bodhi, who is rumoured to have mystical martial arts power and she is determine to return the body back to its righteous place. However, a powerful team of assassins called 'The Black Stone' want sole possession of the body. Inevitably, Drizzle changes her appearance and names herself Zeng Jing. Through her journey, she falls in love with Jiang Ahsheng (Jung Woo-sung). When Zeng Jing/Drizzle discovers that Jiang is the son of the person whom she previously assassinated, things take a turn for the worse as a three way battle between Zeng, Jiang and "The Black Stone' erupts.

Not too bad for a HK gung fu movie, with lots of battle scenes, room for character developments and romance to blossom in the movie. The director tried to instill surprises for almost every character to capture the audience, 2 of them tried to hide their past by changing the outlook of their faces, but little did they know that their path will cross again in a way that they may not want to face. A highly skilled fighter disguised as a lowly official in the imperial court. All these adds on to the suspense for a grand final showdown. I have been wondering, is it becoming a trend in HK movie that one of the female cast has to seduce the male lead in one of the movie scene?

Rate: 6.5/10

IPPT

Yes, another pass with incentive, so no more worries for another year. But passing the 2.4km is getting more and more difficult. This time, clocked in 12:19, vomited and legs going jelly after crossing the finishing line. I am getting old. 4 more IPPT to go. Tak boleh tahan...

Sneek preview... :)

Trying with a F2.0

Post Mail

It is a miracle that given the block number is wrong, the avenue number is wrong, the mail still get to me. The saving grace? The administrative guy got the unit number and post code correct. *faint*

Woes of deposits in banks

With effect from 15 October 2010, the deposit interest rates for DBS and POSB deposit accounts will be revised as follows:


POSB Savings Account (Both Passbook and Passcard) and Save-As-You-Earn Account

Existing Interest Rates:
1st $3000 - 0.125% per year
Next $47,000 - 0.125% per year
Next $50,000 - 0.250% per year
Above $100,000 - 0.250% per year

New Interest Rates:
1st $10,000 - 0.100% per year
Next $90,000 - 0.100% per year
Next $250,000 - 0.250% per year
Next $650,000 - 0.250% per year
Above $1,000,000 - 0.275% per year

What nonsense! From pathetic interest rate of 0.125% to even more pathetic 0.100%? I think I have to look for alternative avenues of income.....