Knock, Knock, Sawadee Kha Bangkok!

It’s my first time to Bangkok, and truth be told, I expected the worst. Hey, as they say, if you expect the worst, then you will never be disappointed.

True, true, when I came to the First House Hotel, the staff were pleasant enough, and the room was alright. It was way better compared to the nightmare I had of a room back when Shikin and I stayed in KL. (Ugh, the horror of budget hotels in KL.) Although the closet was small and the bathroom tub is stained from age but the whole place was clean and cozy. There was no smell (esp from the toilet) and the beds were hard but still within the limits of comfort. Every morning there is breakfast (although it gets a little tired after seeing the same breakfast menu for the 3rd morning, blek.)

I loved Bangkok.

People keep telling me stories of either horror or happiness.

“I love the food!”
“The pick pockets there are terrible!”
“Riding tut tut is a blast!”
“Careful of what you eat, dun want to get food poisoning on your 1st day.”
“It’s a shopping haven!”
“Don’t get cheated!”

In truth the Thai people are generally friendly and very polite when it comes to handling others. Our tour guide kept saying 'excuse me' before he pointed out some interesting fact of the places we visit. They are proud for who they are and loves to joke about and laugh, generally have a good time.

My hotel is located near the Platinum Mall and the Indonesian Embassy. It’s far from any rowdy bars or sleazy clubs so at around 10pm it’s relatively quiet.

Good timing for us was that we were visiting when it was their King’s birthday. For all their political hum drum, the Thais were pretty united and respectful when it comes to the royal family. On the evening of HM’s birthday, small groups of people burned yellow candles and incense, offered flowers and candies in the streets, around temples and shopping areas where his portrait was displayed, all in prayer and respect for His Majesty. It was awesome.

First day, we arrived at the airport at 6 in the morning. So it was reasonable we crashed the afternoon, slept all the way till evening. Woke up hungry and ready to hunt around the area.

The streets and alleys were crowded with hawkers, food stalls, knick knack stalls, selling everything you can imagine. Although I was careful what I ate. I don’t want to end up eating kitten meat or something equally appalling and gross.

Food court is a good choice cuz they have the menu in both thai and english. You can buy a food court card (kinds like electronic card), order whatever you want, then hand over the card for them to swipe. I like this system cuz not only it’s faster but it’s also hygenic in a sense that those who prepare the food dun handle icky germ infested cash.

Ah, what I would do for some sticky rice and mango right about now...

Because it was the king’s birthday, all the tours were cut down 50%. So we went on two tours, one around the city visiting the palace, the sleeping Buddha and the golden Buddha, a thai massage (@#%^&$*#! Thai massage bloody hurts!), and finally ending with Calypso Cabaret show. Then the other one to the floating market, an elephant show, a crocodile show and wrapped up with a cultural show.

We saw some interesting stuff really. I mean it’s Bangkok for crying out loud. There were ang mohs with their arms around their ‘friends’ who would prolly give them happy endings after a full body thai massage. Lets see... there are thai guys who are hotter than most women.

Some are so natural looking that I can’t really tell them apart. There was one who worked at the food court. I asked how much was the duck rice and the pretty petite thing answered in his deep manly voice, “Three hundrad and fity baht.” It really shocked me for a second there.

Shopping was of course great but I hate to see those Buddha heads or hands or what ever parts of his displayed for purchase. They looked like antiques, which makes me wonder how many of them are legit. I hate to think they were robbed from temples or scared historial sites. Which is why I didn’t get any eventhough I love antiques.
If you can imagine this one. Or this spectacular one.
Being sold like this at the floating market! Unforgivable! If you knew they were taken from temples or historical sites, would you buy them?

Or many I have been watching too many indian jones movies. -_-" (But it's true! Historical sites are robbed regularly to be smuggled out and sold!)
In the Temple of the Golden Buddha, weighing at five and a half tons of solid gold. Made around the 1400s-1550s. The brochure wrote that the statue originally was covered with a thick layer of concrete to protect it from thieves. It was lost for a while (it's secret protected too well I guess) and was re-discovered in 1950's when they were doing some renovation work for a building belonging to the East India Company. Today it sits cozy in a small temple and gazes serenely at all that visits for 20 baht per entry.

One thing is for sure, got to bring my own camera next time I go Bangkok! XD

Racoons!

Half the time when I’m there, I couldn’t believe that I’m actually there, you know? The weather was balmy and breezy, kinda like mild version of the Bruneian weather. The sky was so blue, you wouldn’t believe and the sand was so soft. To think I was actually there seems kind of surreal now.

People there were really nice to me and eventhough we were advised not to roam around, we couldn’t help ourselves. We wanted to try exploring some near by strip malls. Well…they seemed more like run down shop building to me but hey, sometimes you dunno what gems you might find in all that dirt.

Victoria Secret. Where I got a bag, a blusher, a lipstick, a couple of card tags... and underwear. Hee. Very secshee. Sorry, cannot see. I'm shy.

Plus my blog insurance doesn't cover mental trauma caused by images.

So we strolled down one lane looking for dinner. Didn’t know what we would find, nor did we have the faintest idea what dinner we wanted. It was a fresh sense of adventure exploring the unknown in a foreign country. It was funny to think of me now looking at a laundramat and all the time feeling like I wanted to try it out, you know, washing the laundry at a laundramat. Hehe.

There was a family of racoons living in the bushes near the hotel. So we fed them some pizza. One wanted to sneak up to me to steal my tiny tub of Hagen Daaz chocolate ice cream!

Lets see…we ended up at a pizza place called ‘New York Pizza Place’. It was a tiny place tucked away at a corner and I felt kind cozy there, waiting for my order, watching people come in and out. They would place an order for a single slice and coke. Then gobble the whole thing up while standing. There was a middle aged couple, a tiny woman and a large man, both chatting over the counter with the staff. Dangerous? Well, maybe, I mean our neighbourhood was in the industrial area but it seems pretty alright with me.

I went to Aruba Restaurant where they serve really nice bread and yummy nachos. It was close to the beach and so we strolled around, taking pictures, testing out the water with the tips of our fingers. (I didn’t know we were gonna be going to the beach or else I would be wearing something else.) The girls and guys sun bathing there were hawt and I mean HAWT. *phew*

When we were leaving the place, we saw a plane flying the banner behind it with the words, ‘COLLEEN WILL YOU MARRY ME?’ which was the most romantic thing I’ve ever saw.

Then my sense of humour had to spoil it.

It kept thinking things such as

*What if Colleen didn’t see it?*

*What if Colleen was in the loo?*

*Or Colleen was in the middle of dumping the guy?*

*What if Colleen was in the middle of screwing with another guy and she thought the OTHER GUY was proposing?*

My God, my mind was falling down into a dark dank well at a funny farm.

Food For Thought

Ft. Lauderdale is more of an industrial/business area so all the tourist parts are a bit far off. Taxis there are bloody expensive mind you. A trip half an hour would easily cost you $45 - $50. Oh but the food was amazing. Whatever I had, I loved it. Well, except for rice. Their rice was terrible.

What did I have? Omg, my mouth is just watering already thinking about it. I had turkey (they just finished with the thanksgiving hols) with mashed potatoes along with a serving of mac and cheese. Heh, mac and cheese, how American can one get?

I had roast beef with sweet potatoes (that’s an interesting side dish, I mean I seldom see mashed sweet potatoes served with meat.) Their sandwhiches put ours to shame. Just rolls and rolls of beef/ham/chicken slices between burger buns, wholewheat bread or wrapped in tortia bread.

Of course got to try some of their pasta as well, oh god, the portions were just huge!

Even when I’m in the habit of polishing off whatever was put in front of me, but this time I just couldn’t finish everything, there were just too much! I was so full that I didn’t even savour their dessert selection no matter how tempting it looked.

Pizza! Spagetti and meatballs! We had them for dinner one night and the slices are just huge. So huge in fact that we saw several customers come in just to order a slice or two and eat them standing up right then and there.

There’s nothing like visiting an actual diner to have apple pie, a glass of milk and a hot fudge sundae! Felt like Archie and the gang were gonna walk in any minute! XD A shop full of candy! Sweet tooth heaven and a promising future for cavities!

Then there were the typical American novelties that I had to try, like candy apple (there were chocolate apples too! I didn’t try them but they looked delish!), gummy bears, jelly beans, gum balls and beef jerky. I got my brother some beef steak jerky, he was estatic. Ding dongs and pop tarts were really sweet and I think ppl just make too much of a fuss out of them.

Nothing like having a fun night out in Miami’s South Beach, however a meal there for 3 people were USD$180! I nearly fainted. All we had were some pasta for 3 ppl, alligator meat appetizer and two pina coladas. The service charge alone was around USD$30. Outrageous. Well I guess that’s Miami for ya.

I stole some Miami sand in retaliation and will distribute them amongst my friends when I can find those tiny glass bottles. Yes! You hear that Uncle Sam? I stole some of your precious American soil! Take that! Ha! See la! That’s what you get when you drop a bill with seriously overcharge service tips on the lap of a Chinese woman. Want a tip? Here’s a tip, next time give us tourist a warning when you’re gonna rip us off under the pretense of ‘service charge’, alright? Bloody real time robbery.

Oh but I had some nachos with cheese at Aruba restaurant at Ft.Lauderdale beach and they had salsa dip too. I would kill someone for those nachos right now. Mmmm, nachos…

Finally the final meal was juicy steak from Outback. Seriously the best steak I ever had. I’m a meat lover. I just sleep better when I had my meat for dinner. Sad but true. Oh, but that hunk of bovine was absolutely divine. *sigh~* I was smitten.

Oh, but the most disappointing was Taco Bell. I mean, having heard so much about it, I thought there would be a reason why it’s so popular. I can basically sum it up in two words, tasteless messes. That’s that.

OK! OK! Enough about the food! I’m hungry right now as it is. Gonna go dig up something to eat. *sigh* I had to blog about food, eh?

To be continued~!