To actually receive the news, a place where I had lunch, had dinner, got to know new colleagues and superior got burned down. For me, is for no apparent reason at all.

Not only it got burned down, it collapsed… All that remains are the ruins..

Never in my dream I would imagine this would happen to Bangkok.. Whatever happened to the land of smiles?

Bangkok is always associated with Happiness, Shopping, Fun, Laughter, Friends, Serenity, Temples,  Awesome times, Trying funky street food, great time laughing at friends…

Now, everyday we fear something will happen to friends, colleagues and innocent citizens.. Hope everything return to normal soon. Although it will never be the same again :(

During happier times at bangkok ..

Where you can find everything under the sun!

Literally under the hot hot sun

All sorts of people as well.

As much shopping damage had been done the day before at Platinum, my trip there was kept to the minimal and more focus on souvenirs hunting. Dressed for the heat that I’ll be combating.

But once I knew I’m going Bangkok and obviously that will include JJ, I wanted to try the famous boat house noodle.

It’s quite good, but the wait was quite horrible. Only 1 person was making the noodle, the rest of the staff was just standing around, taking orders, ushering people to sit here and there…. =____=

Would have helped alot if those people make themselves useful.

The noodle is sort of like glass noodle but not quite. They have it in beef or pork. I had beef, nidnoi’s pork with a huge fishball. The soup would be the essence of the whole dish. So remember to drink up! although it’s fucking spicy.

*Updated* Forgot to mentioned the location. Okay, it’s practically quite easy to find. Along the main street inside Jatujak, somewhere along the midsection there’s like a tiny food court. Walk all the way pass the food court, then you’ll reach to few soi/lane with air-conditioned restaurants or shops. It’s just at the corner. Impossible to missed unless you can’t see, hear or even smell -__-

Secondly, I wanted to see the huge pet section that I missed on my first trip there. I’m so glad I found it this time!!

The puppies all are toooooooo cuteee!!

Puppies are perpetually cute, no matter what breed.

Look at how the seller will put tiny ribbon on their head…to heighten the percentage of people buying them on the spot. People like me *shifty eyes*

Of course I couldn’t buy any :(  Just look at the cute and stupid faces on the first and second photos on the left…

I’ll end the post with the a busker which is scattered like pepper in the market. ASIAN STYLE!

The paper reads ” For Education” FYI

Anyway, the market is always filled with busy buzz and sound of people bargaining. The only time everything and everyone stood still, was when the speaker suddenly blast their national or king’s anthem.

Quite a sight to see giggling tourist or lost looking tourist thinking “WTF??!!”

]]> http://apple4today.com/jatujak-market/feed/ 3 http://apple4today.com/delectable-yumss/ http://apple4today.com/delectable-yumss/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:23:26 +0000 Eve http://apple4today.com/?p=1388 Can’t upload photo directly means no mood to blog.. H1N1 virus is infecting everyone, even my blog got some =.= Professor Ming only manage to cure it for me today. Yay to him!!

Was having dinner with Nikki and DivaLisa at Gardens last sunday. The wait to our table was 15mins long which prompted us to pop into the cake/muffin bakery – Delectable, that we had heard so much about.

The owner herself personally came up to us and appears to be super chirpy. What’s left for the day, vanilla and chocolates flavour with chocolate > vanilla. However, Sue (owner) strongly recommend us to take 2 chocolates as she puts it ” I assure you they are as tasty as they look good”

3 muffin for RM28 is quite steep…

We (3 of us) prefer the vanilla much more than chocolate flavour.. The sugar paste/icing on the muffins are really thin compared to the rest we had tasted and that is why its not as sweet too. I like.

The vanilla had some lemon zest taste in it and make the taste “fuller”. While the cream under the icing for chocolates are coffee.

Icing + Cream + cake base = delectable taste! I’m not a huge fan over cakes and sweet stuff, but overall it’s good!

Delectable things in my life of recents.

Instax mini I took in Bangkok.

In front of Platinum Mall

and me at Jatujak Market

Back to Pulau Pinang for Merdeka Long weekend! Hooray for long weekend!!

*most photos are quite shitty because I try to take them discreetly. I dont want to look noobish -___-

I frequent this place every morning the whole period I was in Bangkok this year. Bangkok always seems to have something up her sleeves, delightful surprises for those that visits..

Apart from the Parisian inspired interior, plus some quirky deco such as the blue penguin;  part of the charm is the location. A quaint little place tucked at in a corner of busy Sukhumvit 23, you might just miss it if not observant enough. That offers the little privacy that celebrity or famed people craved for..

In the short time period I’m there, we share the place with famous local models with Birkin bags, and Japanese actress holding private functions there. Even groups of pretty young people with Prada and LV sipping cocktails or sangria… Which makes me look quite out of place most of the time… =___=

I was definitely filled with infatuation towards this place.

Conveniently located next to the hotel I was staying, it was a great excuse to just chill and have our dinner there. They have their specials menu scribble nicely across the huge glass partition around the place.. that’s if you can see in below photo (-_-||)

The very first time I was there, I ordered the Petite Burgers. The burger patties were juicy and made fresh when we order. Most of their food takes about 20-30minutes to be serve, rest assure the quality is excellent, else, just scream at the people there….

The famous meaty crab cakes. This is under appetizer but  by the 2nd day, we were cozy with the waiters there and we had free garlic bread!! So we were quite filled up even by ordering appetizer. Hehehe. The crab patties were lightly pan-fry served with home-made dressing.

Simple yet satisfying Fish and chips. My colleague had this and she’s been thinking of it until today!! She just told me that she’s dreaming of the fish and chips…and she had F&C at Alexis yesterday but it’s not good enough…The effects of Minibar on people that visits them..

This might look like shit, but it’s a rib and prepared tastefully too..hehe

I forgot what this is already. Photos with flash, obviously taken with haste. I think I was very hungry by that time.

Croque something something. Virginia ham and plenty of cheese. Takes 20mins to prepare and totally worth it!! My indon colleague had this 2 nights in a row~

Night time, they have fairy lights lighting up the whole outside garden with vintage fans. Very nice ambiance.

Minibar Royale  also specializes in cocktails made with sparkling wine. There is an entire page in their drinks menu dedicated to them, with half of the drinks listed signature sparkling wine cocktails.  Apart from that, they have draft Hoegaarden. IN BANGKOK! To my delight!

For the many nights, we tried their Lychee Martini, Bellini, Hoegaarden, bloody mary, HOEgaarden (of course).  On the last day I was there, I ordered the Mini Royale cocktail which is a simple combination of pomegranate juice and pomegranate seeds with sparkling wine. For my case, the bartender added some vodka for me for some extra kick     I like it so much. It’s pink in color (important!!) and sweet with a bit sourness in it. A little fizz from sparkling wine makes its the perfect drink for a lady like me!

This post took me so long to finish and finally its done and up!

I want to remember. But human brains are selective on memories. As time goes by, it will be tampered with what we conjure up, what we want to remember instead. I hope I remember minibar for many years to come Hope to bump into you again…not in 3 years nor 5 years time…

Getting There
Address : Citadines Bangkok Sukhumvit 23
37/7 Sukhumvit 23 Bangkok 10110
Tel: 02 261 5533
Open: 11 AM – Midnight, Daily

Price: All above dish are less than 350Baht inclusive tax and service, except for the ribs.

Nearest BTS-> Asok
Nearest MRT -> Sukhumvit

OK, Where did I stop? Alright, it was our first one-day-trip and these are all the activities we had to cover in ONE DAY! Unbelievable?

Believe it!  To save your bandwith, click

Nah…I was just kidding, even Superman couldn’t survive the trip. We went for a full day kayaking trip to Ao Thalane for Day 2; and believe me, it is worth every single joule of energy spent. It was quite a deal that we got from Art Canoeing. Because we bought 2 full day trips off them on the spot, we paid only 1800 bht each instead of at least 2500bht they would be chargng any “westerner”

We were out in the sea kayaking for almost 4 hours *exhaustinnng* Trust me, for a person with zero sports cell in her, i did pretty good. If i can do it, I don’t see why anyone else can’t.

First spot was to Ao Thalene, a lush mangroove cave area where it’s so cooling and peaceful that i feel like just floating around for the rest of the day.. At this point, I’m still afraid to pull out my canera so not much photos. From there, we kayak to another full mangroove area filled with monkeys!! Fortunately, the monkeys there are very tame so unlike those from home =.=

Fortunate for the monkey that I know that before it jump right in front of me. It must have been praying for it’s hearing before we kayak in :S

It was just sitting there eating the pineapple and when it’s done with it, it went diving infront of us. MONKEY.CAN.SWIM. AND. DIVE. That’s really something new to me hahah

The wind wasn’t very kind to us that day. Every stroke of the paddle seems useless. Then we stopped at some cave when the guide skillfully serve us with the sweetest pineapple that i’ve ever had. He just sit there in his kayak and start to slice away with a seemingly useless small knife while the rest of us stare in awe.

The very very large canyon that we went after the cave. In MrSmallFace words, “It’s like we are in Lord of the Rings movie” his face full with amazement.Photos will do no justice on the height and beauty of it. It just feel different kayaking into it rather than looking from the flat photos…

Caught red handed. My human motor is taking a break. No wonder our kayak just won’t budge faster =.=

From there, we saw a monitor lizard sleeping on a tree, a puffer fish caught in a net and arms getting more tiring as we battle the waves towards a small sand bed in the middle of the sea. It was filled with thousand and thousand of small crabs that ran away once we go near.

Stupid starfish that lies everywhere!! The guide just pick a few up and threw them across the water as if they are pebbles. The cliffs behind me is where the canyon lies.

Then it’s back to the pier and lunch. LIKE FINALLYYY!! Before heading to the amazing Emerald Pool (Sra Kaew). Looks like it’s a elephant drinking bowl huh..

We were told the colors of the water changes day to day. From green>blue> turqouise> ??

Very cool indeed. pun intended.

Day 3 started out early as well. Tuk Tuk was early today. We stopped at Railay Beach for a while to pick someone up and it was breathtakingly beautiful. No wonder it’s one of the best beaches in S.E.A. Most of the speed boat tour (island hopping) centers around the Phi Phi archipelago. Upon reaching the first, Bamboo Island, we can hear gasps going around the boat and sounds of hands searching for their cameras.

It’s crazy how white the sands are. It’s blinding!! I had to keep my sunnies on all the time even when i’m in the sea.Not to mentioned how HOT it was.

Then I can’t remember what our Thai guide was saying. Viking Caves, Pileh Bay, Shark Point, Monkey Bay, Lohsamah Bay. It all sounds the same to me. Looks the same as well. Breathakingly marvelous jelly like seas.

However, the most beautiful of all, i think is Maya Bay. Afterall, Leornardo Dicarprio filmed “The Beach” here. It’s THE BEACH. eheheh

The day was filled with dozing off in the speed boat ride with the wind softly blowing around you, waking up, go shuttercrazy for awhile, jumping into the sea for snorkelling and repeat. For most of the part, i prefer to throw bread crumbs towards the direction of MrSmallFace so he’ll get attack by fishes ahhahaha

The end of the day came fast and we spend most of the time running around Ao Nang beach (where the boat drops us) until it started to rain and we had to seek shelter in a smelly phone booth.

The differences of me and him jumping. My pathetic attempt.

There’s more to do in Krabi other than those I’ve mentioned here. If you notice, i mentioned cliff.

Yes, Krabi is famous for it’s cliff climbing too. As well as bungee jumpings, jungle trekking, scuba diving and much more. But we don’t have the time for everything.

After all that, we all need to get pampered. Especially in Thailand where massages are damn good at a steal! We couldn’t decide where to go so we decided to trus the sign which said THE BEST MASSAGE in TOWN. For once, it’s telling the truth. Hehehe..

And finally get to use my Princess Instax Film that Christal/Jason got for me!!

Now, next post up would be none other than…

]]> http://apple4today.com/flexing-some-muscle-at-ao-nang/feed/ 7 http://apple4today.com/food-ao-nang-krabi/ http://apple4today.com/food-ao-nang-krabi/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:58:38 +0000 Eve http://apple4today.com/?p=919 Of all the many post to come on Krabi, i decided to start bombarding you guys with food first My expertise *erhemm*

First day dinner we went to this place called Wang Sai after asking the locals on where’s the best place for food. From what we observe during the day, there’s not much local food around. It’s really a nice place, spacious and right next to the beach.While waiting for the food, we had our drinks. Beers at 50bht. woohoo!

Since it’s only the 2 of us, we had just a few dishes. The pineapple fried rice and green curry came first. They serve pretty fast given the number of customers they had that night.

Then the very well made squid. It has the right amount of sourness for you to wrinkle your face however balance it with the right amount of sweetness and spicyness! Yummeh!

The crab with egg. Hard to describe. Very nice texture to chew..

The restaurant. We were stuff to the maximun by the time we are finished with it. Even so, we couldn’t finish everything The bill came up to about <700bht. Considerably cheap for all the seafood and servings. ahahah

For both day lunches, it was provided by the tour that we signed up for. No idea on that, maybe McDonald Pork burger at 150bht per set? Or for those who need their caffeine fix, there’s starbucks..hahaha. Second night, we wander around in search for some cheaper food.

It was actually quite hard to find authentic Thai food except for some stalls infront of Krabi Resort which closes by dawn. Most of the restaurants there cater for eurasions so utimately most of the food are Swedish, Danish, Italian, English and surprisingly the best food in AoNang is Indian Food!! =.=

Finally we found a small hawker centre like place opposite Krabi Resort again, just a little way up Ban Ao Nang Hotel. It is something similar to Gurney Drive, a tourist trap haha. All the waiters there are friendly as hell, genuine or not, i enjoyed it all together

Since we don’t feel like stuffing ourselves silly again, we had a small meal. Before that, our drinks again. Quite a wait as the place is filled to the brim..

Pineapple fried rice again. The staple seafood tomyam that you must have when you are in Land of Smiles. the delicious drumstick, simply delicious and of course some fried noodles for the sir. They are pretty generous with their ingredients.

It was a cheap yet awesome dinner that is cheap. Just 300bht for everything.

So on the last night in Krabi, we decided to try out the western food they offered there. I mean, if they cater to so many foregineirs every single day, it wouldn’t be bad food right. Plus, most of the restaurants are open and managed by “farangs” or foreigneirs themselves offering their country food.

After wandering up and down the strip of Ao Nang beach for about an hour, deciding and scrutinizing every restaurants, we finally settled for Jeanette’s Place facing the beach. It was fully packed (so is every other rest =.=) but we got our table quickly and served promptly. Although the thai waitress kept stressing that we order our drinks first.

The paintings hanging on the wall are up for sale. Creative huh? Anyway, the above 2 photos is to show you that there’s no asians at all~~!!

My swedish meatballs with cranberry sauce, mountains of mash potatoes and some brown sauce. The mash are absolutely amazing! I love it! We love it! I already am a big fan of Ingolf mash but this is just so much better! The portion of meatballs might look little but it’s damn filling cos its…meatball..hahaha

MrSmallFace’s chicken shnitzel(not sure of spelling) taste like any other shnitzel. Crispy, crunchy and fattening. HAHahaaha

For the meal, we paid less than RM55 for it. Not bad huh? and it tasted real good. Oh yea, inclusive of drinks

Last food tips and most important from Krabi that i can give it TRY the PANCAKE by the roadside! It’s so nice and cheap. And the way they make it is exactly like roti canai. except that they have a long range of top ups you can order. Most of it are just 20bht.

Emmmhhh, the chocolate and honey topping. We had it everyday we were in Krabi..hehehe

More on Krabi soon..

First i’ve got less than 24 hours to watch MRAZ! I’m so excited!

Its so hot here, i mean yeah..because the place shares the same climate with Malaysia. Just making use of the free wifi here

But apart from that, it’s has been great so far..Wish u were here

Things to do if you have only 2 days in Hadyai.

EAT much much food till you explode! Just tell the tut tut driver the name of the place, then he’ll bring you there. Hadyai is too small to be lost.

Try KanEng for the stir fried crab meat, tomyam gung and sweet&spicy deep fried fish. Must go 59 or Ha Sip Kau for the claypot flowercrab “tanghoon” i dono what issit called in english. sorry. Another must order at 59 is the claypot bittergourd pork ribs stew..Very yummy.. We also ordered something called KengSom, definately very “keng” because it’s so spicy no one are able to finish their own small bowl. Fyi, it taste like curry mix tomyam. Don’t judge it by my standard as i totally surender when it comes to spicy food. I don’t even take curry mee.

Ride a tut tut and feel like a local. Sometimes i feel i am in a car chase scene..Life threatening ride.

Be spoilt with cheap birdnest and sharkfins. Don’t get me wrong. I am very against people eating shark fin because i think it’s a very cruel thing to do. But I cant stop people from eating it except giving them a piece of my mind and stand back.

However, bird nest is diffferent..hahaha..1 bowl full of bird nest is only 300bht = RM30. fuckin cheap. Anyone can “rinse mouth with bird nest and have shark fins with rice” < cantonese saying.

Take in as much as local food again. It’s all about food~! Be a tourist. Do stupid things.

Local food to try at night:-

1. The super spicy beef/pork balls and sausage infront of Lee Garden. It’s really super spicy. The mild one is known as spicy sauce -.-| -.-|
2. The kaya/chickenfloss/butter and sugar bun infront of Pink Lady. The kaya is a MUST try. It’s so good!!
3. The fried chicken stall just next to bun stall.
4. The mango and sticky rice shares the same stall with fried chicken
5. McDonald samurai pork burger and the Shrimp burger. It’s so good!!
6. Swenson ice cream! fucking cheap tak boleh tahan

Go for thai massage~! How can you miss it. Just note the price is about 240bht for 2 hours full body massage. Since we were occupied during massage no photos. The obligatory Sawadee Ronald photo!

At night, go for some “show” (includes blowing horn, bursting balloon, firecrackers and coke bottle opening) ..go for a drink at the pub or the option we headed for.. playing games and team building in our very own hotel room

Weapon of choice:-

and Asahi beer at 350BHT, Smirnoff Vodka huge bottle at 680BHT… Will you not drink? Did you not see hoegaarden is just 130BHT? Honestly, even the holiest guy who claims he don’t drink will probably end up wasted sleeping in a corner while holding a mama instant noodle in 1 hand.

The night was fun. Bonding with your colleague with icebreaking games that need not use brains and the sole purpose it was created in the first place is to confuse you more. Photos are withheld… Here’s a very very adorable pomenarian instead

The few remaining ones…

And the last ones standing!! and we woke up the earliest out of all people. 8am!!

Thank you for such a fun weekend away from home! We all need a refresher weekend sometimes and this comes at the right time.You guys a great bundle of fun and awesome team. Quite sad Kimmie couldn’t be there although I’m sure she had her share of fun in KL

Once checked in, we rushed out in search of food. Should we have this?

or this, Samurai pork Burger with cheesy fries with ice cold latte that give Starbucks a run for it’s money ~!

but we choose to have nice vermicelli noodles by the roadside, with extremely spicy economy rice, so spicy it made the MEN of the trip cry; and aunties that lives up the friendly reputations of Thais.

Poor fat dogs that ppl used a marker pen to “conteng-menconteng”…

The typical thing to do after a long day in Thailand… Thai MASSCHATTT~!!

After the massage, we went for a perfect thai dinner. To dine in the same place as the Thai Princess and ex Japanese Prime Minister, Koizumi… well worth the wait. Coincidently, the place ( Somboon) is no more than 10minutes walk away from our hotel. How wonderful can it get  :love:

You’ll notice a lot of Japanese dining there as well. We had very nice eggy crab, omelet oysters, Siam Style steam fish, NICE mango sticky rice, “tang hoon” with crab claw and obviously tomyum kung!

After dinner we felt like just passing out on our beds, but the ever enthusiastic tour guide, Nidnoi already have plans for us. “Get ready!! ” She asked us..so kinda reluctantly, we got dressed.

Took a cab to THE PLACE.

and never look back.

It’s seriously one of the best clubbing places to be. The name to remember when you are in BKK -

RCA

We did not took much photos, because we left the cameras back in the room thinking it will be short trip. We have no intention to leave that place at all after standing in awe before the clubssss… @_@

So best we wanted to go there again the next day and the day after… so best I did not feel like clubbing in Penang nor KL for months… -.-|

I must finish blogging about Bangkok!
I must finish blogging about Bangkok!
I must finish blogging about Bangkok!