The King and I in Chao Praya

this post was drafted a week ago, excuse the outdatedness TQ!
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mommy talk at 15 weeks : yesterday we saw sikecik on the screen and he/she was squatting under my huge placenta moving only her/his fingers. naughty huh..planning something smart darling?

anyways, i've been in some rough weeks lately. work has definitely take a toll on my body. so i had to organise a big training event in Bangkok. i was running on adrenaline i suppose. i had too much energy during the bangkok meeting and lost it when I reach KL. I became a Zombie a week after!

I always promised my husband, since my work has this travelling perks, we could use that to have our own time away from KL. So we planned to have a weekend in Bangkok that was after my big training event. Even though I could get special rate at the hotel I used for my meeting, I decided to find a much cheaper lodging option just to have more cash for my favorite activity - SHOPPING. I mean come on....tell me who does not shop in Bangkok???





So i searched for some cheap hostel just like what I did during my Europe solo trip in 2008, and found a nice guesthouse located nicely in the city center in Silom called Sunflower Place. we booked a double room with a bathroom ensuite for RM78 per night. it is clean, central location, close to a skytrain station, newly renovated, and has a small balcony!..it was run like a B&B by a Thai couple, whom were extremely helpful. they made a personal call to our room just to ask if we need info about some halal eating place around the vicinity, isnt that sweet?..the bad point is just the rock hard mattress that will not be too inviting for honeymooners, even more for babymooners :P like us

so the theme for this trip : shopping, food and chao praya!

Shopping

our guesthouse is just a stone throw away from the famous Patpong. i know its not the most decent place to be in. even everybody is talking about the 'pingpong show' (which i think i know what), but it has rows of cheap stuff similar to Petaling Street. The difference is the rows of shops on the road sides run some business you dont really want to know about. we were not too interested in the items sold there, so we decided to go to Suan Lum on a tuk tuk

Suan Lum night bazaar is located about 50baht away from Patpong on tuktuk..(haha i do not know how far so i use the tuktuk fee equivalent). it is a big bazaar selling all kinds of souvenirs, and most targeted for foreigners. the price there is quite competitive, but all looks kind of the same. thai purses, silk, t-shirts, handicrafts, house decorations and so on.

If you want to find nice cheap handbags, jewelleries, chic clothes, try strolling along Siam road. Get off at Siam BTS station and have a walk towards the ever popular MBK shopping mall. You could see alot of eyecandies (i bought two nice handbags on my way)..and there is Siam Paragon, Hard Rock Cafe along the road too. If you come out from MBK at 9pm plus you will see alot of small stalls selling very very nice things. i have got cool beaded maternity shirts for RM13 in different colors, and hubby got himself a classic bike t-shirt. fridge magnets also sold for RM1 each..cheap eh???

If you visit Bangkok you must never miss Chatuchak Market. It is like the must-visit shopping heaven i must say. It sells everything that anyone could imagine sold in the whole world. they even sell puppies, kittens, fish, and plants. find very cheap thai silk, skirts, shirts, jewellery. dont ask me what we bought there, but imagine my shirt went all wet and needed to calm myself down at a park nearby before continuing the trip around chatuchak (iwascrazy). the place was HUGE i tell you.

chao praya

apart from sky trains (BTS) and underground train (Metro), Bangkok also has water public transportation. You could get on a public boat taxi for THB13 (RM1.30) and board the boat to wherever destination you like. it could get very crowded during rush hours. we chose to go on the boat and see places from the river when it was close to sunset. you could see some main attraction beside the river e.g Wat Arun, Grand Palace. it reminds me alot about Venice even though its way so different. i mean we dont have such thing in KL huh.

food

i am a huge sucker for food (eh i always say this kan..think in some other previous posts too). Its just that during my pregnancy, i do not have too crazy appetite . But it doesnt bother me much, cos i still love finding place to eat and try out weird stuff (as long as it is halal).

i had some funny craving with Durian when we were there. we were at the fruit and flower market when i saw a durian stall, and i said i want that badddddlyyyyyy...i was planning to eat it there and then, but hubby says, lets tapau and eat wherever. i was like OK,, yeayyyyy..

So the durian journey starts. we walked around bangkok city till it was dinner time. We had difficulties in finding a place to eat, until we found the place, i was really in need to sink my teeth in the fluffy durian (i sound like a vampire). and i plead to my husband if i can have it in the restaurant. he gave me a look like telling me..'hey the smell will get everywhere and we will be thrown out from this restaurant, please behave'. i was like ookayyyyyyy....



then we finished dinner and decided to shop in patpong and took a tuktuk to suan lum night bazaar. the durian was with me all the time..ergh. even one t-shirt seller noticed my durian and i told him 'dont touch it, its MINE'. after all the shopping and sweating and yet we still have the durian UNTOUCHED. we decided to head back home to the guesthouse and use the underground subway (Metro). an old Thai lady saw me carrying the durian and 'mengadu' to the Metro security guard. and husband and I were asked to go outside 'SIR, NO DURIANS ALLOWED HERE'..Buggerrrrr. i was so upset and nearly cried because i want to go back but i still need to have my duriannnnnn..husband decided to hide the durian somewhere and carry the precious. he was quiet, like also upset - but with confidence asked me to follow him in. and we managed to get in the train unharmed and unharassed.

husband asked me to put the durian outside at the balcony. and i straight away had my own private time enjoying my ong awaited durian feast ALONE. husband not interested, maybe after all the agony and misery. whatever. but its so satisfying and fulfilling having durian in this nowhere, i felt insatiable (apekah).

the next day, the durian smell starts to creep inside our room (maybe the sun and heat triggered the gas and ...) . so thinking of how to dispose the durian unnoticed by the guesthouse ppl. husband again became the saviour (whoelse is there? i'm hopeless remember?) and make a big marathon to the dumpsters and throw away the smelly durian. (while i distract the receptioninst by asking stupid question)..we were like Mr. and Mrs Smith kan hahahhaa..Thank you darling for all your sacrifices and stunts in ensuring my pregnancy well being taken care of..huhuh..love you.

anyways..i was planning to review food rightttt..i digress like alottt.*sigh

learning from my past trips to Phnom Penh, i cautioned myself that this trip would be a busy working trip that will make it hard to even catchup with meal times. i dont have the luxury to go out and find food, and finding halal food will be even more excruciating. so i tapau from home a pack of Gardenia bread and a jar of peanut butter. i dont want to starve myself and it so not good with the little one trying to survive inside my tummy.

but when i reach my hotel, i saw a sign just beside the alley - USMAN MUSLIM FOOD. i wanted to cry with joy! this is going to be easy. so this trip turned to be a Jalan Jalan Cari Makan trip, and i think i would do you people good by reviewing some of he halal places we went. so lets have a look:

USMAN MUSLIM FOOD

It is located just beside the hotel where i stayed, the Imperial Queens Park at Sukhumvit Soi 16. It is a very small family run restaurant, offering excuisite Thai food. The owner is a Muslim from Southern of Thai. I had Spicy Pad Thai (Kuey Teow) with blackpepper. I was bawled by the extreme spiciness. imagine they put fresh blackpepper with it branches (rantings) and lots of small cili apis...FIRE!!

If you go there you will have a chance to meet at least one Malaysian. Some of them have been working there for years and some just having a short trip for holiday/work. And funny thing is we will exchange looks and greet each other before starting conversations across the table

'kerja kê'..'takdelah..jalan2'..' panaskan'..and so onnnnn

i went again with husband, and we had a full course tom yam kung, garlic kangkung and lots more. its cheap, delicious and marvellous!!

MBK Shopping Mall

Apat from the many things sold here, this mall has a proper prayer room and a couple of halal eating place in the food court. You just have to go to level 5, and find international food arena. the stalls inside offer halal indonesian food, middle eastern and thai food. But you just have to pick the stall with Halal sign, OK.

Islamic Restaurant beside Haroun Mosque

Another tips when you travel is find a mosque (and experience praying there), then there must be some good makan place around. We tried that in Bali and now in Bangkok. we googled before searching the place. It was so confusing, and hard to find. by the time we reach there, I am already dead hungry and sweating like a pig. It is an Indian restaurant but also offers Thai food. My husband had his Briyani and i had some spicy meat dish with rice. We had strawberry lassi and some samosas too...

Lebanese restaurant near Sala Daeng BTS station (Patpong)

This is the restaurant recommended by the guesthouse owner. its just walking distance from our GH and its in a small mall in ground floor together with KFC. This place is locate just a few steps away from the Patpong night market. It has a lot of affordable choices of Lebanese food. I had Sandwich Kebab and husband had chicken grilled. They serve really big portions with generous amount of fried chips.

Restoran Cili Padi (ITF Tower - Intersection of Silom-Narathiwas)

The last night in Bangkok, we found this Malaysian restaurant on google. Hey how cool, its walking distance (again) from the guesthouse. It was near 9pm when we found ourselves hungry. Husband was actually too tired from our chatuchak fiasco, but he immediately woke up when i read 'WE SELL NASI LEMAK, TEH TARIK' haihh..i told him 'like you have been in Bangkok for 5 years kan???, who's the pregnant one????^'*roll eyes*

OK so we walk and as usual sesat abit - read:too much. i kept on calling the restaurant telling them 'dont close yet OK, you have some hungry KL people coming, but we dont know where your bloody restaurant is' . When we arrive, we were already too hungry to talk i ordered Nasi Goreng USA and Bandung Ais while husband had Nasi Lemak and Teh Tarik...with Siti Nurhaliza's songs as the background music. The owner was a Kelantanese who has been running this shop for 3 years now. The verdict : Nasi Lemak not really like what we expected, but any Malay food when we are overseas is GREAT.

So overall- this trip was wonderful after so many problems faced at first (boss disapproved my extra day leave, husband's tight work deadline fell on the trip day). we also learnt some lessons to not prioritise souvenirs shopping on top of the objective of the trip - to relax, unwind and see places.