Baiyoke series of hotels has it's pros and cons. First off, an undesirable point is that it's a distance from the nearest MRT or BTS. This means the only forms of transport would be either taxi or Tuk Tuk if you want to travel somewhere else like Chatuchak. On the other hand, its really near (5 mins walk) to an epic shopping mall - Platinum Mall.
My boy says it's Bugis on steroids, and it really is! Although most of the stalls sell stuff for girls, there are still shops for boys on level 3/4!
Navigation is really easy. The shopping mall is made up into 3 sections per floor. Two wing sections which are smaller flanking a larger section in the middle. Use the escalators and landmarks to note where you have shopped. My girl took the entire day to finish the place!! There is a really huge food court on the top floor which has a vegetarian stall, so no worries if you get hungry! There is also Mister Donut, Black Canyon Coffee and other snacks stall in B1. So... Take your time to explore the entire place. For guys, there's benches on every floor for you to rest while you wait for your girl! :D
Beside Platinum is another small shopping mall which you have to drop by too! They have an entire floor selling shoes and another floor selling bags! It's a heaven for ladies!! I felt that the sizes do run a lil small for some shops too. My shoe size is 4 but I had to buy size 5 for some shops and even went up to size 6 for one shop! Nevertheless, I am really happy with my buy! (:
We left for dinner at around 8pm! This time round, my brother's Thai friend picked us up and brought us to Seasons Change! It's a timbre alike place - with a live band, drinks and of course food! Unlike Thongkrueng which caters to foreigners, Seasons Change is a place that caters more to the locals. Hence, the staff there can't really speak English.
A dish to recommend would be their mushroom salad. The sauce that was mixed with the golden mushroom was spicy and a tad sour which is great for an appetizer. I think all their salads taste good, and different since most of their salads are spicy.
Other than stir fried veg, we had tom yam soup, omelette, fried rice and fried dong fen.
Just like Singapore, Tom Yum has the option of adding milk, which would make it less spicy.
We waited for the rain to stop before we left for BKK's night market at Huai Kwang. It's a lil like our Pasar Malam, selling Thai kind of zichar, clothes, shoes and accessories. It is within walking distance from Huai Kwang MRT (blue line), so do drop by to experience their local night market! (:
Another recommended local cuisine would be their Roti Prata!
It's egg prata with different kind of toppings. They have carnation milk, chocolate, ovaltine and many more!
We tried their carnation milk and chocolate milk flavour!
My brother took a few bites before I took the picture!
IT'S REALLY DELICIOUS! If you like sweet stuff, you have to try it! Though it's sinful, you will fall in love with it on your first bite! No joke! Tasty roti prata, and the vendor didn't put too much oil so the prata remained crisp in some areas, and softened by the carnation milk in others. Wonderful combination, gonna try it at home.
Day 4
After breakfast, we went back to MBK centre for a lil walk as we did not really cover the place on day 2. Spent quite a while in a stationery shop (I like shopping for stationery so that I can get ideas to make gifts for my boy)!
Our lunch was MK - a steamboat food chain with several outlets around BKK! Their soup is vegetable base so you'll just have to order vegetarian ingredients for your steamboat!
We ordered mushroom and vegetables set, 2 plates of noodles and tofu. It was really filling and only cost us 730 Baht which is cheap by SG standards. The sauce they provide was very tasty too - it's similar to the sauce that's provided when we eat yong tau foo, but with green chilli, lime juice and sesame added, which is actually optional.
As we were about to leave MBK, I spotted this poster!
Looks good from the pictures! Will try it if when we visit BKK again!
My brother's friend recommended their waffle (saw this at several BTS stations)!
Several flavours to choose from! I had the chocolate one! Yumyum!
Really chewy and not too sweet! :D
Trained down to Ekkamai (BTS - Light green) for our Thai massage at Health Land!
My brother booked in advance!
The place is really big, bigger than a mansion with a private carpark!
Our VIP room which had really simple, and zen like furnishing. Actually all the rooms I passed by were VIP sooo..... yea. But I am pretty interested to check out their suite package, just that it's a hefty 9k baht for 2 people.
It's our first time having Thai massage, and we probably don't know how to gauge the standards. But from the overall environment, I would suppose the staff are professional, and the techniques they use are fully orthodox.
And so... It was time to leave BKK! ):
2 red luggages for check-in and 6 bags to hand carry. Total weight comes up to a whopping 60 plus kg? Lucky they were pretty lax with the weight, especially hand carry, but don't take chances just in case!
Slightly overweight!
We underestimated the amount of things we would buy! We would definitely go for a heavier check-in baggage the next time round! BKK is worth coming back again and again, and definitely for the shopping. We might venture into other forms of tourism but for now, shopping is our main priority! See you again Bangkok!
