My Very First Blog

My apologies for the long break from blogging but now I am back! My blog posts are so outdated I am actually blogging about my Bangkok trip back in 2014! I really hope you don't mind. Haha!

Anyway, it's Day 2 of my Bangkok trip in February 2014 and just to refresh you, here are some of the highlights of that day.

Pork Satay Rice @ Cafe Boran Hat Yai
Mont Nom Sod @ MBK Centre
After You Dessert Cafe @ Silom Complex

After going our separate ways in the afternoon, my friend and I decided to meet up again in the evening at Siam Paragon, a famous shopping mall in Bangkok.



I love the view of the shopping mall at night with all the lights and waterfall. My friend did some real shopping while I only did window shopping. Lol.



I saw some red horses near the entrance of the mall.



2014 was the Year of the Horse, according to the Chinese zodiac. It was just two weeks after Chinese New Year, so I guess the horses were part of the Chinese New Year decoration.



It's good that the mall had not taken down the horses otherwise I wouldn't have the opportunity to see them.



Aren't they beautiful?



Love these horses! And the water reflection. So artistic.



We then walked over to Siam Center next door. Yes, not many people around. I guess it was a weekday, maybe?



Inside Siam Center, we passed by Mr Jones' Orphanage, a famous dessert cafe that has lots of teddy bears and soft toys as decoration. Unfortunately, we did not try the cakes and dessert there. The timing just wasn't right. Maybe I will visit it next time I go Bangkok.



At the time of my visit, Line toys were the rage in Bangkok. These toys and merchandise were not yet available in Malaysia so I was really tempted to buy them!



That's Cony, with two different expressions.



And Brown. I like Brown. But at 1,300 baht? I think I better spend my money on food instead. Hahaha!



Plush doll heads.



These are cute. Should I just grab one? ...... Don't think so.



Maybe socks are more useful? ...... Nah. Lol!



So after leisurely browsing around Siam Center, we decided to walk back to Siam Paragon to search for something to eat. You might be wondering - how come we did not eat at Mr Jones' Orphanage earlier? Well, we needed real food, not cakes and dessert. Lol.



As it turned out, we did not eat at Siam Paragon. Instead, we walked all the way over to Central World nearby and dined at Black Canyon Coffee.



You see, Siam Paragon, Siam Centre and Central World are all in close proximity to each other, so it's really no problem walking from one mall to the other. I was so glad they had the malls all lined up in such a way. Thank you Bangkok, for being so brilliant!



I had a cup of hot tea latte with biscuits. Not bad!

And a plate of tom yum noodles. It was delicious, but very spicy!



I think I forgot to take photos of what my friend ate because I just could not find those photos. Well, it had been 2 years. Things disappear sometimes, don't they? Haha! I really should try and be more updated in my blogging from now on! :)

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Last Saturday, I went to Fahrenheit88 shopping mall in Bukit Bintang KL with my family for dim sum breakfast. After breakfast, we walked around the mall and that was when I stumbled upon these Tokidoki characters.



For the uninitiated, Tokidoki is the Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand created in 2005 by Italian artist Simone Legno and his business partners Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold. They produce an innovative line of apparels, handbags, cosmetics, footwear, accessories and other products based on the characters and tokidoki logo designed by Simone Legno.



Frankly, I was not very familiar with Tokidoki, so I did some reading up before writing this post. In any case, I found these larger-than-life Tokidoki statues very cute! The above is Cactus Friend riding on a Tiger.

Below is another one of the Cactus Friends.



Ciao Ciao riding on Unicorno.



White Tiger.



Adios, the Grim Reaper from the Till Death Do Us Part group. By the way, I found out that Ciao Ciao (who is riding on the Unicorno) is his girlfriend!



Kaiju, the equivalent of a monster in Japanese.



Aren't they cute?

For more information of Tokidoki characters, read HERE.

It's not too late to catch up on these cute Tokidoki characters as Fahrenheit 88 is holding the Tokidoki Exhibition which includes a pop-up store and sales of merchandise till June 29th.



Oh wait, did I see a Tokidoki Panda? Now I am really interested! :)

Last Wednesday, I took a day off from work to go shopping at Pavilion KL.

OK not exactly shopping, but more like a meeting up with my sister and nephew. We had lunch at Dome Cafe located at Level 4 of the mall.

Both my sister and nephew had Fish and Chips.



I had Grilled Chicken in Turmeric Sauce. Pretty good!



After a long lunch which we spent entirely eating and chit chatting, it was time for a movie. We watched Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie. I am not a big fan of Disney shows, but since I am a fan of Angelina Jolie, I decided to go for this movie. It turned out to be quite entertaining and Angelina was such a pleasure to watch!

After the movie, we visited the Batman Exhibition at the main concourse of the mall. As I am not a Batman fan, I was not really interested to take any photos. But my nephew was. These are some of the photos he took.



















Do you like them?

For dinner, we went over to Hokkaido Ramen Santouka at Tokyo Street on Level 6 of Pavilion mall. I forgot to take photos of the food my sister and my nephew ordered, so I can only show what I ordered. LOL!

I did not take note of the Japanese name for this set, but it consists of ramen in miso soup, rice with pork, salad, chawanmushi and a cup of tea.



My rice with pork.



Ramen in miso soup. You can choose from 4 different kinds of soup.



We also ordered a plate of gyoza (pan fried pork dumplings) for sharing.



All in all, a pretty satisfying dinner.



And before we left, we shopped at Komugi Bakery as well as Lavender Bakery for some yummy bread and pastries to take home. It was a good, pleasant day for me and I am glad I took the day off!

My 4th day in Bangkok was rather uneventful and unadventurous. That's because I was not feeling too well. Don't you just hate it when you get sick during your holidays?

I even skipped my breakfast as I woke up late. I did not feel like eating anything which was really a pity in a food paradise like Bangkok. Anyway, my friend and I decided to go shopping. We planned to go mall hopping the whole day. LOL!

Most of Bangkok's major malls are connected by the MRT (subway) and BTS Skytrain, so it's very convenient to go mall hopping. But maybe you want to get the Rabbit Card first!



The Rabbit Card is a rechargeable contact-less stored value smart card used for the BTS Skytrain in Bangkok and may be extended for the MRT and BRT (bus rapid transit) in the near future. It's something like Singapore's EZ-Link card, Hong Kong's Octopus card and Malaysia's MyRapid card.

The Rabbit Card can also be used in some retail outlets like the following but I think it's more suited for locals since they can earn reward points. As a tourist, I did not really bother about it. Why pay with the card when you can pay with cash right?



The card comes with a loyalty reward program, whereby you can redeem coupons by converting your rabbit points. There are kiosks for you to redeem those coupons, but again, it's more for the locals, so as a tourist I did not bother.



Since it was my first time getting the Rabbit Card, I was required to pay 50 baht issuing fee, 50 baht card deposit fee (refundable) and minimum 100 baht travel value. Total 200 baht (US$6.20 / RM20).

Once the card value drops to 15 baht, you will need to top up with another minimum 100 baht. During my 5 days in Bangkok, I had been using the card and found it very convenient while traveling on the BTS Skytrain. Now if only I could use it on the MRT as well, then it would be super convenient!

If you plan to get the card (and I highly recommend it for hassle-free traveling), do take note that the card expires 5 years from the date of issue and the stored value expires after 2 years. So if you visit Bangkok every year, or every 2 years, you can continue using the stored value when you return.



The first shopping mall we went to was Amarin Plaza. To be honest, it was my first time entering this mall.



Look at those cute mascots at the main entrance although I was not sure what they were!



Amarin Plaza is a five-storey shopping mall. It's not as happening as say, Siam Paragon or as crowded as MBK, but you might be interested in the quality Thai handicrafts sold on the third floor.



OK, I have to admit I did not take a lot of photos during my mall hopping. I think I just managed to take two photos of Gaysorn Shopping Centre.



Nothing that I could buy here as the mall consists of mainly branded retail shops like Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada and the likes.



We passed by Erawan Bangkok boutique shopping mall but we did not enter.



Nearby the Erawan boutique mall is the famous Erawan Shrine.



You can read more about Erawan Shrine HERE.



We headed over to CentralWorld which is walking distance away from the Erawan Shrine and Gaysorn Shopping Centre.



Oh look at the three cute elephants by the fountain!



Took another shot. LOL!



The entrance into CentralWorld shopping mall from the bridge.



It was actually quite a large shopping mall probably as huge as Siam Paragon. We did some shopping here, although prices were still not attractive enough for a non-shopper like me.



The view of CentralWorld as we left the mall.



Next, we went over to Silom Road to visit Silom Complex. It is a office building cum shopping centre.   In fact, I think it's the only shopping mall along Silom Road - don't remember seeing any other malls there.



Nothing much of interest at Silom Complex, so we headed to Terminal 21.



I have blogged about Terminal 21 before, especially their special toilets - read about it HERE. This was my second visit, so not many photos to show.

This is Charing Cross in Terminal 21, not London. LOL!



The view of Terminal 21 from the BTS Skytrain Station.



We also visited Siam Paragon but skipped MBK and Platinum Shopping Mall due to lack of time. So did you count how many shopping malls we went to in that one day in Bangkok? I was actually quite surprised at myself for mall hopping the whole day despite not feeling that well! Did I just graduate from a non-shopper to a shopper? LOL!

Both my friend and I managed to get ourselves some clothes, food and some souvenirs, so I would say it had been quite a productive day. Haha!

I bought this passion fruit juice from a supermarket. (forgot which mall!)



It was incredibly delicious! Yum!! Wished I had bought a few more bottles!



Also bought a few boxes of Siam's Crispy Durian and Crispy Mangosteen.



It was the first time I came across Crispy Mangosteen. Used to buy only Crispy Durian last time I visited Bangkok. I did not really like the mangosteen but the durian was good as usual.



This is how the Crispy Durians look like. Sweet and full of durian flavor! Do give them a try when you visit Bangkok.



But do take note that only the Siam brand is good - avoid other brands!