Saturday, 26 July 2014

Bangkok: A city of Awesome Food, Shopping and Massages

I love Bangkok so much that if schedule allows, I will try to make an annual trip there :)
 
Last year, we stayed at Tango Vibrant Living Place which is just a bridge away from the morning Pratunam market. Super convenient and accessible to platinum mall!
 
This time round, we booked 2 different accommodations for 2 days each. For the 1st 2 nights, we stayed near the vicinity of Saphan Taksin BTS station. Booked it via Air BnB. S$36 per night! CHEAP!

Day 1, Saturday
Arrived in Bangkok at 12.10pm, we took the train, here's our route:
Suvarnabhumi Airport Link --> Phaya Thai BTS --> Siam BTS --> Saphan Taksin BTS --> 10mins walk --> Apartment
My review:
+ 10mins walk to Saphan Taksin BTS and Sathorn pier
+ Near Asiatique and Yaowarat (Chinatown)
+ Near all the Wats (palaces)
+ Cozy
+ Quick check-in
+ Cheap
+ Shampoo that doesn't make your hair dry
+ Neat
+ Good internet connection and TV channel selection

- Far from platinum mall and the main shopping area
- A little scary to walk alone at night as it is in one of the lane which is poorly lited
- The first night, I found spiders on the bed and around the room thus I requested to have a room change the next morning. I was so worried that the spiders might crawl into my ears that I couldn't sleep the whole night! But after the room change, everything was good as it was cleaner and more spacious.

 
 

Yup, that's J haha.
 
After we checked in and changed into something more comfortable, we make our way to Wang Lang market. We took the boat/ferry from Sathorn pier and alighted at Wang Lang (siriraj) N10. Each ticket costs us 40baht (S$1.60).
 

 
After a 15 to 20 minutes ferry ride, we arrived at Wang Lang market. There are lots of stores selling food and fruits. It was super crowded and stuffy..
 
  
  
After reading many reviews, we decided to check out the much raved T&K seafood restaurant for dinner. So we took the ferry from Wang lang market to yaowarat (N5) and walked to the restaurant, we got lost and walked for a good whole 45mins!

Food Verdict: We ordered river prawns, morning glory and yellow curry crab and a huge bottle of guava juice. The food wasn't too bad, love the prawns! There were slightly too much shells in the curry crab haha. Total bill: 580 baht (~S$23)
 
Restaurant Verdict: Since it was only 5pm, we were ushered into the restaurant, aircon was awesome given the sweltering heat but.....this was the start of my nightmare :( while we were waiting for the food to be served, I noticed that there were many cockroaches (size ranging from baby to mid) crawling around on the walls beside and behind me. It wasn't the hygiene issue but the fear of these pests that totally killed my appetite, every minute I was just trying to keep my body as far as I can away from them -.-'' What a traumatizing meal...

 
   
 

After dinner, we took a stroll around Chinatown before heading to Saphan Phut night market via Tuktuk (50 baht).

Since the night market only starts at 7pm, we decided to head to a nearby restaurant bar for a drink. Sadly, there was nothing for us at the night market so we zoomed off to Asiatique :) 
    
 
 
Despite travelling to Bangkok multiple times, this is my first time trying Mango Tango and OMG it's awesome! Craving for it now -.-
 
Feeling super tired, we decided to head back to the apartment for an early night. Queued for half an hour for the free ferry back to Saphan Taksin pier...
 
Day 2, Sunday

Good morning! Sunday is chatuchak day!! But first we decided to visit Wat Pho..

By the way, here's our new room for the second night after the spider incident.

On the way to Wat Pho :)
 
Entrance fee: 100baht/pax (~S$4), which comes with a complimentary bottle of water for all tourists.
Even though the weather was blazing hot, we still enjoyed the temple visit :D 
 

After the temple visit, we took a cab to Chatuchak, journey took about 20mins (150baht, ~S$6). Bought the fishball/fishcake snack before lunch, omg the chili concoction blew me away! Which I had to buy it again before we left the market ;p

 
Had quick lunch at one of our favourite stall before starting on our shopping spree :D
 
The weather was a killerrrrr. Totally sunburnt despite slapping on loads of sunscreen...

After 4 hours of shopping, we decided we had enough of the heat so we made our way to Union mall but before that we dropped by Or tor kor market (directly opposite Chatuchak market) to check out some local food.
 


To travel to Union mall, we took a train and alighted at Phahon Yothin Station, after walking around for 2 hours, we had dinner at Narai Pizzeria. Took their buffet special at 426baht (~$17) for 2 pax.
 
Next, we started craving for dessert, so we took a train to Siam square, for After You Dessert!  Had to queue for half an hour which wasn't that bad. We ordered a ferroro toast and cococino for 320baht (~S$13). Yummy! Totally satisfied our cravings! ♥
 
  
 
PetiteFreckles ♥

Sunday, 20 July 2014

Paik's Bibim @ Bedok Mall

On one of our date nights after work, we headed to Bedok mall for dinner and decided to try Paik's Bibim, opened by Chef Jong Won Paik.
 
Address
Bedok Mall
311 New Upper Changi Road
#01-95
Singapore 467360
 
--> There's another outlet in Vivocity.
 
We ordered a Teriyaki Chicken Bibimbap (S$8.50), anchovy noodles ($6.90) and steam eggs (S$3) to share. Total bill came up to S$18.40 (No GST and service charge).
 
The food tasted great, really love it but the portion wasn't enough for us haha, it was about 75% lesser than those usually served at food courts. I personally feel that in terms of price, it is slightly steep for the portion. Nevertheless, we did enjoy the food :)
 
PetiteFreckles ♥

Saturday, 12 July 2014

Selection of Wedding Venue: Hilton Singapore

We made an appointment to do the site inspection at Hilton on a weekday.

Address: 581 Orchard Rd Singapore 238883

They have 2 banquet halls- Panorama (min. 18 tables, max. 24 tables), Vista room (min. 20 tables, max. 25 tables) and the Grand Ballroom (min. 30 tables, max. 50 tables)
Weekend Wedding Dinner
(January 2015 – December 2015): $1218.00++ per table of 10 persons
 
 
Banquet hall
 
Bridal suite
 
 
  
Pros:
  • Sufficient reception area
  • Pillarless
  • Walking distance from Orchard MRT
  • Huge (seriously huge) bridal suite
Cons:
  • Low ceiling
Reason for not shortlisting: Just didn't feel an affinity to the venue.

Petitefreckles ♥

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Selection of Wedding Venue: Grand Hyatt

Next, Grand Hyatt! Omg totally adore this place, the service is good and there's a live kitchen- you can see them prepare the food without the noise and the smell, that's super interesting ;D
 
Address: 10 Scotts Road, Singapore 228211
 
They have 2 banquet halls- The Gallery (min. 20 tables, max. 34 tables) and Grand Salon (min. 25 tables, max. 32 tables)

Weekend Wedding Dinner
(January 2015 – December 2015): $1588.00++ / $1688.00++ (Saturday) per table of 10 persons

Pros:
  • Considerably large reception area
  • High ceiling
  • Pillar-less
  • Food was awesome
  • Live kitchen
  • Instead of 20% parking coupons, they are giving 30%
  • Walking distance from Orchard MRT station, very much centrally-located
Cons:
  • Pricey
Reason for not shortlisting Grand Hyatt: It was way way out of our budget, if not I would have chosen this place :(
 
 

 

 
  




PetiteFreckles ♥

Friday, 4 July 2014

Miam Miam @ Bugis Junction

Yesterday J and I met after work, and after spending 15minutes pondering on what to have for dinner, we decided on Miam Miam!
 
Miam Miam is a casual Artisanal French café-restaurant that brings together a mixture of French Artisanal Cuisine & Techniques with influences derived from traditional Japanese preparation & cooking arts (extracted from Miam.sg).

Address:
Miam Miam @ Bugis Junction
200 Victoria Street, #02-14 Bugis Junction, Singapore 188021

They have another outlet at Westgate.


 
We ordered a squid ink risotto that was accompanied with an omelette ($17.80) and a Spaghetti topped with lobster bisque and a tiger prawn ($17.80). The squid ink risotto was super delicious but slightly oily, and sadly the portion was too tiny to fill my tummy. As for the spaghetti, it was slightly uncooked and too salty for my liking.

P.S. Do note that ice water is chargeable.
 

Total damage: $42

Petitefreckles ♥