This is a belated post because I have just entered my first week of school and I already feel like crying HAHAHA FML.
Nevertheless, I finally ended my 2016 with wonderful company and much fun!
And welcome back to Singapore Yingyu (Belle)!!! Met up with her together with Susana and we chilled at the cafe called The Clueless Goat located at Novena and the food was really affordable and awesome.
Afterwards we headed to town and started walking around Clarke Quay. There wasn't much there as our end goal was to reach Gardens by the Bay (we definitely underestimated the walking distance HAHAHA) and we took the train instead.
Reached MBS and we tried to look for a spot at Food Republic for dinner but there were no vacancies. Saw Chen Tian Wen (Mr Unbelievable) with his kid tho. Yingyu was pleasantly amazed. HAHAHA.
Ate Llaollao for dinner (yes we did) and then made our way towards Gbtb while braving the slight drizzle. Bought our $8 tickets and there we go, into the Christmas Wonderland.
We entered around 850PM and was told that there will me a "Snow Show" at nine, so we just loitered around. Was greeted by this lighted castle upon entering and it was really beautiful. Didn't get to walk around much because we were waiting for the snow show to start.
THEN WE WENT CRAZY when we saw foam flying out of the castle. We ran into the castle and the photo below shows the end product. Hurhur.
I really have no idea why I am the most "foam-ed" person out of us three. I thought taller people should kena more easily. Oh wells.
The we walked around and looked at the various stalls and game stations. They were really pricey tho... And we didn't take photos at the photo booth because it was $8 for 2 strips and we don't know how to split it among us three.
Chanced upon this Christmas tree and wow, the photo turned out really nice!
There was this lighted shelter (it looked way better in real life; pardon my lousy photography skills) and if you walked all the way to the end you'll see a huge Christmas tree.
At 10PM we went in for a second round of foam.
And finally got someone to help us take a nice photo while it is foaming!
Sad to say the foam wasn't that much at our second attempt; maybe it was the last slot that's why they are cutting down the volume. It lasted really short too. Sobbles.
Before we left we managed to capture a nice picture with this barrel. HAHAHA.
I am so glad we made it to Christmas Wonderland together. It was rare for Yingyu to fly back and I am glad we managed to have so much fun together!
After 1.5 years, we finally managed to find time to "tour" around and take nice photos again!
Before that, we went to catch Lulu the Movie at the theater. It was alright, there were some funny moments but overall we felt that the story line weren't very interesting. Afterwards, we had lunch at Arnold's (IT WAS DAMN GOOD OMG THE CHICKEN) and headed towards our long awaited destination - People's Park Complex rooftop.
Since the last time we took nice photos was quite sometime ago, I wanted our photos to look more professional so I went all out and brought my camera and the godly tripod HAHAHAHAHA. We reached People's Park Complex after taking sometime to find our way, and found the staircase that leads to the rooftop; I swear to god my phobia of heights made me faced some issues climbing those stairs.
Finally we reached the rooftop and was not surprised to see other people taking pictures as well. I started taking out my tripod and setting up and I felt a bit embarrassed because nobody else had a tripod HAHAHAHA. And we are still "less cool" that the others because they actually climbed to nice but dangerous spots while Susana and I were always on the ground hahahah.
We actually had some difficulty climbing the rails. Especially me - short people problems.
Luckily the lighting was really good and we could capture the clear blue sky in our photos.
I guess the most "risky" act that we did for our photos was standing on these unstable crates.
Ran out of spots to capture pictures and then FBI Susana found this spot that looks very urban-ish.
LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL BFF.
Put on our jackets and tried to look cool HAHAHA.
枪毙 you.
It was really fun and I still can't forget how retarded we were trying to avoid people and cars on the rooftop while taking much effort to capture nice photos. Looks like we need more inspiration on how to take photo with confidence HAHAHA.
Finally, after more than three months of grueling lessons and tests, one semester has ended.
This semester was extremely though for me because it is the first time that I have finals for every single module - 2 qualitative and 2 quantitative exams - and omg tell me how does one person write 5 essays in 2 hours, come la you tell me. Seriously.
Oright, scrape all those rants, so right after the disgusting paper we headed for lunch at Old Airport Road together with Adrian and Annabel's Norwegian group mate. So we let him try Fried Carrot Cake, Fried Oyster Egg, Hokkien Mee, Lor Mee and Rojak, and the verdict was Lor Mee and Rojak tasted a bit weird (the culprit's the sauce) and the rest was good HURHUR.
Due to the awkward timing, there wasn't any signs of traffic jam so we approximately entered JB around 3:30 PM. We arrived at City Square Mall and tried to find our direction but the information we found weren't very comprehensible. Thanks to Adrian's map reading skills, we managed to locate our very first cafe - Chaiwalla.
How to get there
1. Exit the checkpoint and enter City Square Mall (right next to the checkpoint)
2. Go down to the first level and find the exit between Starbucks and Cotton On.
3. After you exit, turn left and walk straight until you reach the zebra crossing.
4. Cross the zebra crossing and turn right. You'll see a traffic light. Cross it.
5. Walk straight along the Little India lookalike stretch and make a turn to the left when you can.
6. Walk straight and you'll start seeing cafes popping up.
We tried the recommended Thai Milk Tea and Milk Green Tea, at a price of approximately 8.90 RM and 9.90 RM respectively, which I personally thought was overpriced because it didn't taste as rich as expected, especially when the ice melted. I guess I'll rate it a 7/10.
Apart from Chaiwalla, there were many other cafes along the whole stretch, so we decided to check them out together with some of the nice OOTD spots along the way. While walking, we saw many people holding a plastic bag and we were guessing that it is either pastry or bread. So we walked and walked and saw this small little shop house bustling with people - ahhhhhhh it's the shop that everyone buys banana cakes from. When we stepped in, we saw many many many many many packets of banana cakes fresh from the oven, so my friends and I bought a packet each to bring home for breakfast the next day. And they smell reallllyyyy good.
After Chaiwalla and the banana cake shop, we walked backwards to this cafe called Replacement - Lodge & Cafe that sells all day brunch. (Apologies for the lack of pictures because we were all so tired from walking.)
We ordered the Breakfast Platter and the Eggs Ben, which costed us about a total of around 60 RM. The Eggs Ben was a lil small (the portion I mean) and I was shaking the plate for fun and then one of the poached eggs rolled of the bread and onto the plate (spot this poor egg on the picture). I was so sad. But I wasn't more sad than Adrian who stood up and immediately knocked his head on one of the hanging lamps while trying to take a nice photo of the food.
The meal was really good though. My favorite was the Breakfast Platter. Because of my weird preference in eggs (I only eat eggs that are well mixed; I don't like having the white and yolk separated. Okay don't judge me please thank you.), I did not try the poached eggs. But I'll rate the Breakfast Platter 8.5/10.
After much cafe hopping, we headed towards City Square for some light shopping and along the way we spotted this run-down empty hut and we decided to take our "Post Finals" pictures here.
Had the urge to do Manicure and we managed to get our gel nails done at this black and white shop at the 5th level of City Square Mall at 50 RM. We walked around a bit before that and among the shops that we saw, this offered a better price (the rest was around 55 RM, okay I know only 5 RM difference but we still need to save for dinner that day). I was quite sad because the colour I wanted wasn't available but nevertheless I am quite satisfied with their service. Heehee.
While searching for dinner we walked past this restaurant that played the song 我的滑板鞋 (My Skateboard Shoes). OMG I WAS REALLY SURPRISED because this is quite a new song and we were walking and like from far we heard like 摩擦 摩擦 (mo ca mo ca) then me and Cheryl and Adrian was like - this is it. HAHAHAHAH.
Last but not least, we ended our JB trip by having dinner at this Wanton Mee shop at the rooftop level. I spent 10 RM on a bowl of dried wanton mee with soup and chinese tea. The wanton mee was really good though.
Went back to Singapore at around 11 PM and all of use were dead beat.
BUT IT WAS A GOOD WAY TO CELEBRATE THE END OF OUR FINALS!
Till next time~
If you're wondering what is the song that I was talking about, here's it:
YES, finally for the first time I get to travel overseas with my friends. The last time I asked my dad he told be I can't even go to JB without my parents/adults/school. But some time later on I managed to negotiate till the age of 21, and apparently this time I asked my dad for permission he seems to have forgotten our pact earlier on. Oh wells.
So we actually planned 3 months in advance (at that time Si Xuan and I didn't even get our parents' consent yet HAHAHA) and finally we decided to book LemonTea Hotel upon reading the good reviews. We spent about $100 per person for 2 rooms and four nights; as for our flights, it was slightly pricier as we paid $200 per person for Tiger Air (but it was including insurance and luggage).
DAY 1
AND SO... we are on our way to Bangkok and I was super eggcited because it is my first time there and first time travelling with friends! *pops champagne
It was quite a short flight and we reached in about 2+ hours time, and god we took a cab that charges us 600 baht for a trip to our hotel. On the way we kept bargaining and got it at 450 baht ( 1 SGD = 25 Baht, to make things easier). I thought it was still pricy but after a while I realised 450 baht is slightly below market rate cuz we got a big cab and the fares to and fro airport are like that. Oops, sorry to the taxi driver.
We walked a bit and finally managed to locate our hotel - LemonTea Hotel. It is a small boutique hotel and the environment is FREAKING NICE. We sat around while waiting for our turn to enter and the staff served us lemon tea. Yes, lemon tea. It tasted so good and I saw them placing packets of it at the counter so I asked them "is this for sale" and they said no, it's for aesthetic purposes. LOL. On top of that, the staff there are really DAMN NICE and DAMN CHIO omg I wanted to take a picture with them but we are too tired, sobbles.
I wasn't expecting much but when I opened the door, the room was really nice - there was a small balcony outside, a sofa at the side, and the place looks spacious. Sorry didn't manage to get a good picture of the room cuz I just dumped my stuff around right away. And the toilet is really clean too. I like how they folded the toilet paper to mark the start of the toilet roll.
I swear to god I really wanted to sleep right away but due to time constraints, we had to change (not even bathe sobbles) and went right out for late lunch and SHOPPING. Yes, shopping at Platinum Mall which was about a good walk away from our hotel.
And along the way I saw a Tuk-Tuk for the first time, again. Hurhur.
We stepped into Platinum Mall and headed straight to the top floor - with all the damn good food YAS. The Phad Thai is insanely delicious; my friends told me before I headed over to BKK but when I really tried it, it is HEAVENLY haha. I am craving for it right now lel.
No I didn't get to try this, but it looks so cute right.
Soon it was dinner time and we crossed the street and walked to Big C Shopping Mall and tada - there was a buffet restaurant and we decided to head right in. There were like Western Cuisine, BBQ, sushi, dim sum, and everything tastes so good. And it costs us only 299 Baht, around 12 SGD per person. For dinner.
After dinner we walked around the night market outside Platinum Mall; I didn't buy much because I know it is only the first day of the trip so I went back to the hotel with only 1 T-shirt.
And we didn't sleep early - we played card games namely Taiti and Bridge, and this went on for every single night hahaha.
DAY 2
I didn't sleep well last night cuz I wasn't used to the new environment. But well, I survived.
There was very few people at the lobby so while waiting for the cab to arrive, we took some pictures. AND THE STAFF THAT HELPED US, SHE'S DAMN GORGEOUS. And fyi, we got the staff at LemonTea Hotel to help us grab a cab everyday (they are really more than willing to help, and they will look out for you until you got on the cab and left.)
Our first destination for the day is Khaosan Road, a so-called street full of backpackers, and along the way there are many stalls - it looks like a day market.The weather was really really hot and we were all melting.
Was way too hungry and we decided to just make do with a street stall selling Phad Thai (we haven't gotten our breakfast yet)... I was a lil skeptical about the taste because the stall looks a tweeny bit dubious, but we were all hungry so we ordered 2 of this and shared.
AND GUESS WHAT, this is one of the best Phad Thai that I have ever eaten! Like, it is not the usual dry sweet and sour kind but it is filled with gravy and tastes super awesome! If you are wondering where it is, it is located right outside a stall selling alcohol and the insides of the stall is filled with graffiti.
After that, we wanted to find this cafe called "The Fabulous Dessert Cafe" but we followed the directions online and still couldn't find it. So we kept going back to the same area but unable to find the cafe, and along the way we kept bumping to the same uncle who called out to us every time we walk pass him, and we thought that he was trying to do some promotional services so we smiled and ignored him. But turns out that he knew that we wanted to find the cafe and tried giving us directions but we couldn't really understand him at first, but thanks to him we found the cafe: it was being located to a new area right inside Buddy Lodge Hotel.
The rainbow crepe cake looks really beautiful and it comes with a small jar of strawberry syrup.
The total bill was about SGD 8 per person, but I would say it's rather worth it as the desserts are really intricately prepared and the portion is just nice for the 4 of us!
Afterwards, we took a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace, and that was where we were being scammed.
The ticket office guy told us that the Grand Palace is closed and got us to take a 40baht tuk-tuk to an alley to take a boat to Wat Arun temple. The boat consists of a tour around the area including the floating market and the various attractions, and he told us that student price is 700 baht? That is like freaking SGD 28 per person! And when we reached the alley, it wasn't even a proper jetty and luckily there were other tourists who were scammed there also so we weren't alone. It was really scary because the tuk-tuk driver kept offering a lower price and we obviously weren't interested in the services they offered, so we rejected and he kinda scolded us a bit.
So we walked further down and there we are, at the real jetty, and we took a ferry to Wat Arun Temple for like 3 Baht each (3 Baht VS 700 Baht, good scam indeed).
Can you tell that it is L O V E ?
We took the ferry again and headed to Asiatique for our Ladyboy Show - Cabaret Calypso!
If you walk around the indoor shops, it feels like Bugis street but the stuff there aren't as nice and much more pricier.
And while waiting, we walked around, had dinner, and caught the sunset! It was amazing!
While we watched the sunset, we heard a woman screamed loudly and smacked her son like super hard. Then we realised that they are a korean family, and I think the son was trying to scare her mom or something and she dropped something important/valuable into the sea. No wonder she was freaking out. And she kept scolding and screaming in Korean and freaking out. Everyone was staring at them.
Every ticket to the show comes with a free drink, and I wanted Gin Tonic on the menu but I thought it would be as small as a shot glass so being a cheapo I chose sprite instead. Then turns out the Gin Tonic was served in glass. *pulls hair
And we shared a table with an Ang Moh and she was just laughing at me (because I thought Gin Tonic was served in shot glasses) and laughing at the guys cuz we had the aisle seats and they were afraid that the Ladyboys will come and kajiao them.
My favorite was the one on the far most left because she looked the most feminine. HAHAHA.
Took a subway back to our station and walked all the way back to our hotel.
DAY 3
Woke up early in the morning at 8 to go for the Pratunam morning market and I got most of my stuff there! My dresses are all SGD 4 each wew.
And saw this cute little Pomeranian at one of the shops! SO CUTE OMG.
Afterwards, we grabbed a cab to this wonderful place that we saw on the net called "Chocolate Ville" and along the highway we saw a very source of our air pollution - forest fire.
So someone (Mr Gu) achieved his dream of driving a yacht.
The entire place doesn't look like Bangkok at all...
We climbed up this tower and had a great view of the entire place!
My peach flavoured drink with black and white coconut jellies.
Our meals. Fyi, the ribs are humongous. The entire meal costs like SGD 20 per person but the standard and the portion of the food is really worth it.
We got too full and Si Xuan and I decided to grab some pictures and leave the guys to finish up their food,
When you have an overly expressive boyfriend - not sure whether Singapoorean or Thai.
There's them...
Then there's us, trying to look like them.
Then we cabbed back to Siam, was surprised to find out that our cab fare was only 79 baht, and we gave the driver 100 baht in total. Walked around their night market there (to be honest, the stuff there are quite pricey like SGD8 on average? no-no uh-uh my budget is SGD4 on average per item) and had dessert at Mango Tango.
I swear the fruits they used are super fresh and sweet, sooooooooo yummy!!!!!
DAY 4
Woke up early again this time to go for the Pratunam Morning Market (we couldn't wake up on time the day before). Sixuan brought us to this little stall set up by a young couple AND OMG THE DRINKS ARE FREAKING awesome pawsome like mine was around SGD 3+?
As usual I ordered Green Tea Latte hurhur.
Had brunch at this famous Sabx2 Wanton Mee stall and the waiter there actually speaks chinese whew. But the portion was really small and it costs like SGD 4... slightly pricier than in Singapore but the taste was really unique: there was real crab meat, and it is the first time that I actually eat fried pork lard - it tasted super good. Though it is not cheap, you will actually crave for it.
On top of that, we ordered a plate of pig trotters to share, I have never eaten that in my life (not a fan of pork) so here's a picture to celebrate my virgin piece of pig trotters. LOL.
Walked to Erawan Shrine and said our prayers - it was really crowded and you have to pray in an order according to the direction that the Buddha is facing.
Headed to union mall after wards... was told that it is another heaven but to my disappointment, there items there aren't as nice as Chatuchak or Pratunam market and slightly more pricier... so I guess it wasn't worth our sweat and fatigue (the journey there was horrible cause we didn't know exactly which BTS station to stop at).
If you are at any shopping mall, you MUST eat at Jeffer! All of us loved the roasted chicken steak (it kind of tasted like the chicken from KFC Roasta Burger but even better). We went to the restaurant for lunch and came back for dinner; the staff there just laughed at us when they see us ordering the same menu.
Headed to Chatuchak night market and this is the first time I am trying their famous coconut ice cream... Not to my liking cause it was a bit tooo sweet. Sobbles.
Went back to the hotel and surprised Mr Gu for his 21st birthday! I actually brought all these items with me alllll the way to Bangkok. Applause for me thanks. Just kidding.
As usual we played cards and since it was the last night, we stayed till like 5 am?
I fell asleep when playing a psychology game, so everyone went back to sleep as well.
DAY 5
It was our last day at Bangkok; we woke up early and immediately grabbed a cab to Chatuchak weekend market.
I underestimated the heat there, I thought since we could survive near 40 degrees in Singapore, Bangkok shouldn't be a problem. Well I almost died of dehydration. And you can also see why there is a lack of photos; it's a pity that I didn't managed to take my mandatory Chatuchak OOTD shot, sobbles.
Nevertheless, the market sells like super a lot of stuff and due to the fact that our flight is at night, we didn't managed to shop much.
This was our lunch, I think there wasn't a big variety of food around... either that or we didn't managed to walk around much.
And off we go back to Singapore! Bangkok, you have been awesome and we definitely will come back to visit again!
And I shall end with a short vlog that I did (some of you guys might have already seen it).
