The overdue BKK post

After posting pictures of the BKK trip on Facebook, I was at a loss on how to blog about our escapade, without repeating some if not most of the photos, as well as the captions used.

It all began with one serendipitous Mambo session. J & Lu & I were hanging out at wine bar, chatting about life in general; the birds, the bees and the apple tree. And then J mentioned that he was going to BKK with a GAL (joke, haha!) and we started reminiscing about the good ol' Group B trip that took place 3 years ago. One of us gals (I can't remember who) very unabashedly asked J if we could tag along! J, being the warm and welcoming person that he genuinely is, could not decline us! And so Lu and I booked our airtickets and awaited the day with much hope and longing. Hope for the trip to be as fun as it was 3 years ago, and longing for a holiday to take us away from our dreary (and dreadful) work.

We were there for 3 full days and enjoyed every minute of it! These are the highlights of the trip for me:

1. Food, eat, shit (in that order)

Thai food is ohhhh so good, I salivate just thinking about pad thai, tom yum kung, papaya salad and the works. We had an excellent lunch at the Platinum shopping centre food court. Between Lu and me, our meal cost about 100 baht, which is what? 4 SGD? Where to find?!?!

Of course, Thai food, being spicy as it is, did result in a rather hot and painful shitting process :(

2. Oil massage at Healthland

Here we are, at Healthland, awaiting our oil massage. My masseurs all seemed to have a tough time massaging me. One was perspiring throughout and had to stop quite a number of times to wipe her sweat (I stole glances at her from under the face towel). And both had to turn up the aircon in the middle of the session, presumably hot from their exertions?!

3. Somerset Suanplu

This is where we stayed. The service apartment was spacious and very comfortable. Of course, the best part was the mini kitchen where J whipped up delicious instant noodles, fried sausages and wantan soup for us when we arrived in BKK late at night.

On our first morning, waiting for a taxi to take us to the 4-faced buddha.


4. Markets

Bangkok is well known for its markets. One of my favourites is Chatuchak market. If you're lucky, you'll find something nice for yourself here going for a song. And if you're even luckier, you'll find the same thing in a departmental store at ten times the price you paid. Unfortunately, most of my time (and Lu's as she accompanied me) was spent on my retro-ish fan purchase. Lugging the heavy item around impeded my movements and made shopping very difficult. In the end, I resigned myself to standing in the shade of this stall while waiting for the rest to return.

Another market which we visited was the flower market, which was very colourful and full of character. Bundles after bundles of flowers wrapped in newspapers, plastic, etc!

I chose the pink wrapper which J used to wrap my flowers! :)

The other market I enjoyed was the wholesale market in Chinatown. That was quite an experience, as everything had to be bought in minimum quantities of 3s, 6s or 12s for the wholesale price to apply. We had fun pooling our purchases together! :)

5. Fine dining in the clouds

Well, not quite so high but we were on the 64th floor of State Tower getting our hair blown to such disarray! Food was good but service was sub-standard at Sirocco. Frankly, good food is nothing without the good service to accompany it. The sky bar's worth checking out, though.

All dressed up for the occasion!

Round 2 - mini birthday celebration on the 59th floor of Banyan Tree hotel. Service here was much better but it lacked the poseur factor of Sirocco?


6. Self-orchestrated "studio" shots

Before the trip, J was already psyching us up for the "good and cheap" studio shots at Siam Discovery centre. We brought colour coordinated outfits hoping to emulate these Benetton ads.


Unfortunately, the photo studio was no longer there! Bummer! Since we were all dressed according to theme, we decided to DIY our own photo shoot. Presenting....

J the light coordinator,
CY the photographer,
Lu the model and
Gal the artistic director.

BKK gang - the young, wild and free-spirited.

Not too far off from this Benetton ad? :)