BKK Work Trip, March 2012: Coffee Beans by Daos & Banana Prata

 

Part One:  Arrival in BKK @ Renaissance Bangkok Hotel

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I was told that if you want to experience a true Thai institution, you will have to try the cakes @ Coffee Beans by Daos. With royal connections, this cafe has become the place to go for desserts - from their famous cheesecakes to doughnuts. This is my 2nd visit to the cafe, BUT, I didn't get the chance to enjoy their renowned desserts :(

 

They have 4 branches over central Bangkok, so I brought Roger to have his first taste of Thai food at the branch located at Central World. The place was filled with patrons, but we quickly got a table within 5 min.

 
I had to order their hot malt again, which tasted like horlicks sweets that I used to eat. 

 

A must order in BKK, Pad Thai. Actually, pad thai is of Vietnamese origin. This dish was said to be imported to the ancient Thai capital city of Ayuthaya by Vietnamese traders. It was then altered to reflect Thai people taste buds. Pad Thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes.

 
The other soup dishes that we ordered, but great disappointment. I'll say have a go at their Thai dishes instead. 

 Coffee Bean by Daos

Central World Tower 2nd Floor

Rajadamri Road, Lumpini

Pathumwan, Bangkok 10300

Tel: 66 2 613 1530

Another of my usual hangout place is to visit the night market outside Central World, in search for banana prata snack. 
 

Crispy prata drizzled with condensed milk, yums! This is the most sinful snack, but hey, banana is a fruit! Even though I'm not a fan of bananas, this is one of my must-eat items whenever I'm in BKK. You can find the prata push cart at any of the night markets. 

BKK Jan 2013: Terminal 21 & Last Bits of Random Stuff

When in Bangkok, I have a special preference shopping at night markets than shopping malls. This is also one of the reason why I have yet to check out Terminal 21. Since we had to take the skytrain back from our last cafe adventure (KuppA), we headed over to Terminal 21 for a toilet break, opps!

There are 2 parts of the complex: the retail complex which has a total of 9 stories.The Grande Centre Point Hotel & Residence form the next complex. An ideal location to stay for holidays :)

Terminal 21 is a one floor one concept shopping mall, where you can find streets from Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London etc. This mall also has the longest escalator in Thailand of 36m.

Marketing by Air Asia on Xi'An, home to the Terracotta Army. This was part of their marketing campaign, where AirAsia will launch daily flights from BKK to Xi'an. Basically, you just need to take a snapshot of yourself with the Terracotta warrior & send it across to AirAsia, to be one of the lucky winners.

Went ahead to take the pictures, but didn't join in the contest since I don't stand a chance of winning. 

Terminal 21

Sukhumvit Road, Watthana

Bangkok, Thailand

Nearest BTS: Asoke

The night market along one of the BTS station. I have found a couple markets in other areas, can't wait to check out on the next trip!

 

Last meal in BKK before we leave for the airport.

 A big hoola when we were checking in at the airport. As we traveled in a big group, there were lots of luggage. The ground staff of Tiger Airways didn't allow us to check in all together & insisted we check in based on our flight details (we had different bookings). As such, it was a mad rush to sort out the luggage, so we can max our baggage allowance. We met one group of kind Singaporeans who had extra allowance and allowed us to piggy-back on it. I didn't manage to get their names, but thank you so much for your help! I was really frustrated at that time cuz the ground staff who served us was rather blur & the weight (of baggage) that we recorded were different from hers, yet she couldn't explain why her recording was wrong. In the end, after almost 1hour of hassle with them, we had to pay for almost 10kg of extra baggage (which thinking back, it could have been their mistake since they couldn't account for it!)! Bad experience with Tiger & if you were to ask me, I doubt I'll travel with them again. With so many budget airlines to choose, I think they really have to buck up on their service. 

Finally on-board the flight & on the way home :)

BKK Jan 2013: Arrival in BKK

Hello! A brand new month, gasp, is it June already? I was off sick a couple of days late May and haven been feeling 100% of my usual self. Trying to tidy up my work before I leave for another trip in 2 weeks time. Been travelling to BKK a lot and I think this marked my 10th trip to BKK within 2 years! Wow, all the money that I've spent there .... *can't imagine* I really wish to explore other parts of BKK, but somehow, I'm always at the usual spot trip after trip. Just needed to break free from the cycle, maybe on the next trip.

Headed to BKK with the girls in Jan, a trip to relax & recharge. Though I'm used to taking the morning flights out, it was still a painful decision to leave the cozy bed in the wee hours of the morning for preparation.

 

The empty airport at 5am. Wasn't used to not seeing the morning crowd, lol! #workwoes

 

My heart was thumping for Fling to arrive (traffic problems) and it was a mad rush to check our bags in. On the bright side, we were given front row seats, lol! A blessing in disguise :) 

Yeah, front row seats without having to top up! Love the extra leg space #cheapthrill #soauntie.

 

Caught the gorgeous sunrise from 3000+ feet above. Then, it was back to lala-land for the rest of the journey.

Arrived in the land of smiles 2.5 hours later. We had arranged with Jun (who departed a day before us with her family) @ Tango! Yes, this is becoming our 2nd home in BKK. Took our luggage & traveled on the ever-convenient Airport Rail to reach our destination, all within 2 hours!

 

Always a must whenever I'm in BKK! The food court above Platinum Mall provides quite a wide variety of food, but I'll always head to this stall and order my spicy mama mee noodles with chicken & pork (no vegetables) & they auto give me more noodles, me likey :) 

 

Fling & Jun orders, influenced by me :) The only complaint that I have is the serving is tooooo small, not enough for me to enjoy!

 

Tom Yum soup - after taking a few sips, we discovered something "unusual" inside. Thankfully, we didn't suffer from food poisoning.

The Platinum Fashion Mall

Food Court, Level 6

 

There are a lot of resting places within Platinum Mall to rest your tired legs. After hours of shopping, we needed a drink & headed to Let's Sip Coffee to recharge. They provide free WIFI too! I love places with free wifi #cheapo #auntie

Fling with her hot chocolate.
 
Jun & her latte (I think). This cafe provide light snacks like sandwiches, pizzas and cakes. Not a huge collection, but should curb the hunger pangs.  

 

Deliberately putting their heads further back so my face looked bigger! Wa, next time I should use this as well (^^)

 

A nice place to chill out, slightly away from the crowd :) Have to head off to bed now, but will be back with more updates on the trip - where Fling & me checked out more cafes in Bangkok, stay tuned! 

Let's Sip Coffee

Platinum Building, 1st Floor

Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400

Tel: +66 2160 7277

BKK Trip with Leecher Nov 2012 P7

Happy Xmas Eve, everyone! A quick post before I head off to bed, the final installment of our BKK trip! 
** Previous entries for this trip: P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6

 

The last of our BKK trip *throws confetti into the air & pats back for another trip penned down* When I came back from this trip, I was notified to go BKK again the following week. My jaws nearly dropped at the sound of it, but nevertheless, working trip is nv the same as personal trip. I've been to BKK alot more than usual for the past 2 years - let me sort out all the pictures before sharing them on this blog. 

 

Brought Leecher to another place where I visited previously with the girls - wanton noodles! 

  

 The shop is famous for their braised pork trotters and wanton noodles. Very popular with locals and tourists, we shared a table with another group of Singaporeans and had fun chit chatting with them.

 Ordered the dry and soup version - while I was able to woof down 2 bowls at one go previously, I stick to 1 bowl for my treat at Platinum mall later :) Leecher prefers the dry version after tasting both. 

Wanton Noodles
Next to Shibuya 109
Soi 19 Petchburi Road,
Pratunam, Bangkok

We decided to stay near our hotel area for the last day, for it would be easier to head back and grab our luggages enroute to hotel. So, last min shopping @ Platinum Mall & headed to the food court to satisfy my cravings.

 

Always packed with people, no matter what hour of the day. 

 

Braised meat set for Leecher.  

 

  

Spicy stir fried mama noodles with pork & chicken - must have!

 

Sticky mango rice for dessert and Leecher went for some soup, can't remember the name already. 

Food Court, Platinum Mall

Level 6

 We took a cab from the hotel to the airport, which cost around THB250 inclusive of toll charges. 

 

Self check-in kiosk to print out the boarding pass. Ever since I've started traveling, I kept most of my boarding passes and hotel keys in a box as momento. 

 

Leecher's matching passport holder and travel wallet. 

 

Luggages checked and sealed. 

 

The airport was extremely packed, with sections divided into domestic & international flights.

 

Utilized our check-in allowance to a T.

 

 Since we had some time left, we decided to walk around the airport.

 

 

 For taking pictures, so off we went!

 

I wanna be at the pilot's seat, but too short! 

 

Next holiday destination *hopefully*

 

Time to clear immigrations ..... 

 

 Newly renovated. 

  

One of the many AirAsia planes waiting to take off. 

 

Dinner @ Piri Piri Chicken - Piri Piri means African Birds Eyes chilli. 

  

Ordering a meal to share for we weren't feeling hungry. 

 

 

Yum yum, one of my must-have & I'm soooo glad this is finally in SG!

 

Waiting for food! 

 

Very ordinary burger with fries set. 

  

Leecher being teleport to Japan, haa!

 

 

Waiting to board the flight ... and boy, it was pretty cold, so Leecher got us a warm drink.

  

But he ended up drinking most of it, hmp! 

 

Almost night time when we took off from BKK :) 

 

2h 30 mins later, we arrived in Singapore! Home Sweet Home :)