Month: July 2017

As Japan is working, so I need to work too.  (Well, I didn’t have to do it today, but I had to do it at some point anyway…)  After hubby left for office, I took care of writing a promotion request sheet for one of my colleague this morning, started to pack and worked out for a bit to improve my stamina.  Then came out to enjoy the last day of my trip.  First, I went to Asok to look for Macrame code.  Macrame is a type of knitting which is a popular hobby among Japanese wives here.  Thinking to knit a bag, I bought a pack of code.  My late lunch today was my favorite Mango with sticky rice and power juice (100% vegies and fruit juice).  A foodcourt is always a good place to eat alone.  Then, it’s the last massage and shopping time in Phrom Phong as usual.  As I am not a big shopper, I bought a few staff for myself and office, and rushed to the hotel.  Took shower, all packed, now I am ready to go home.  Good-bye my vacation;(

Lunch: Terminal 21 foodcourt (TampenJuice 40B, Mango w sticky rice 70B)
1.5h Foot scrub & massage: 450B
Aroma Difuser: 547B
Food gifts: 248B
Macrame code: 240B
Taxi to airport: 300B (259B + tip)

It required a bit of time and energy to write my great weekend with full enjoyment. After spending morning at the hotel gym and the room couch with ice-cream, I went out with my PC. My lunch today was Ba Mee Haeng, egg noodle with wantons and crispy pork without soup – too shame that I forgot to take a picture. Then, I headed to Phloen Chit just to see around Central Embassy. There are plenties of great and luxury shopping malls here, but according to the guidebook, Central Embassy is the most luxury shopping store in Bangkok. Since I didn’t check price-tags at any of stores, I cannot judge if it was the MOST or not, but it surely was luxury, maybe too luxury for me. I was relieved to find a not-too-fancy coffee shop chain there with Wifi connection, ended up spending entire afternoon there writing my journal. My hubby and I met at my favorite mall in Phrom Phong, enjoyed our last dinner at Suki restaurant followed by Snow-Ice for dessert. Gradually, my mind is getting occupied with the various thoughts, getting back to the normal life…

Lunch: Bamee Khon Sae Lee Thonglor （บะหมี่คนแซ่ลี） 80B
Cafe: The coffee bean & tea leaf Caffe latte 90B
Dinner: MK Live
Dessert: Sul-Bing 320B

My youngest cousin Non-san who works here and her boyfriend Pan-kun kindly took us to a sightseeing tour to suburb of Bangkok offering his own car for our ride.  As both of they are quite experts of Thai culture and foods, it was such as special and unforgettable experience for us.  First, we went to Wat Saman Rattanaram which is recently in “Top 3 must visit in Bangkok”.  My hubby who was fascinated by the pink giant Ganesha, requested to go there.  According to an article, wishes can be come true three times faster as the size of Ganesha here is so large.  So, how to tell our wishes to Ganesha? – Around Ganesha, there are seven mouses who are considered as Ganesha’s ride.  Each mouse is in different colors, red – Sunday, yellow, pink, green, orange, sky blue, and purple – Saturday.  You just need to know the day of the week of your birthday, and find your color.  We all four told our wishes to our mouses, and turned out that the greediest was my hubby who kept talking to the mouse and the humblest was Pan-kun who seemed to have just one wish only.  It was interesting to observe how the locals pray offering flowers, bracelets, bills, etc.  There were many kinds of food stands around the temple.  Non-san introduced us  local foods which we had never tried, such as steamed Tapioca pastries (Saku Sai Mu สาคูไส้หมู), steamed coconuts puddings (Kanom Tuai ขนมถ้วย), Snake fruit (Sala สละ) and sugarcane-ball juice (Toddy Palm).  As you can see in the picture, Snake fruit requires a bit of courage to taste if you don’t know anything about it.  But it was actually very juicy and tasty.  It was always fun to discover new things like this.  After the Ganesha, we went to Suanpalm Farmnok Resort where we could meet varieties of tropical birds and groups of gooses.  Many of tropical birds were originally from Central and South America, but they seemed pretty comfortable with the natural air in Thailand.  I guess the climate here is similar.  Gooses were such good entertainers there too as they easily showed interest on hubby’s rubber-duck, some just tried to eat it and the others tried to threaten it.  Before sunset, we came back to Bangkok and they took us to Non-san and Pan-kun’s first date spot which is a gigantic mall.  As a privilege of being adult, we ate a dessert before our dinner.  Korean shaved ice, Sul-Bing (Literally means Snow Ice) was so good.  Our fiesta was our loving Thai foods, Papaya salad, grilled pork neck, Larb – Thai Salad with Pork, Herbs, and Lime, etc.  Thanks so much to Non-san and Pan-kun, they truly made our day!

Jatujak Weekend Market aka JJ market is definitely one of the popular ways to spend weekend in Bangkok as the place was packed with tourists and locals.  If you are strong enough to persist with heat, you can spend hours there just for treasure hunting.  unfortunately I was a bit too weak to do so, so we spent just an hour or so there and moved on.  As I wanted to visit Lumpini Park to meet the monitor lizards, we came to Silom.  Our lunch break was at Banana Leaf.  One of their specialities is the famous crab curry.  Then, we walked Pappon Street.  The street was calm during daytime but the both sides of street were filled with night club signs in Japanse which sadly prove that the place is very popular among Japanese guys.  To change the off-mood, we headed to Lumpini Park.  It was so hot just to walk there, but there were people running.  My full admiration goes to those who can run in Bangkok.  It was not easy to find the lizards, however by following my wind instinct to read the mind of lizards, we found two of them – one was so peacefully taking a nap.  We headed to the hotel stopping by at an ice-cream parlor.  Sad to realize a half of weekend is over now…
Lunch: Banana Leaf
Sweets: Swensen’s
Dinner: Popcorn, Mango and Beer
Walking Steps:　13,182 steps

It’s a massage day today!  Since there are so many massage salons here, it was really hard to select one.   I wanted to try something new and high quality.  Between the choices of Thann Sanctuary and Asia Herb Association, the latter won this time due to the location and herbal ball.  Three-hour massage took me to the world of luxury – with some pains since my body was so stiff..  My therapist was good with finding all the pressure points.  The result was so clear that the size of my eyes got bigger by being taken all the stiffness.  Once my body is refreshed, I wanted to eat something gentle for my body.  So, I decided to have Thai style congee called “Joke” for my late lunch.  The grounded rice porridge was easy to digest yet tasty.  Then, to understand Japanese celebs here, I went to study a Japanese supermarket.  Surprisingly varieties of Nattos were available there though the lowest price is still high as 170yen or so.  And, everyone’s favorite Fruitche costed 300yen.  On my way back to the hotel, stopped by at a photogenic morden cafe, I enjoyed a fine brued coffee.  I took 17,000 steps today which is quite better than average.  

Massage: Asia Herb Association Sukhumvit 55.Thong-Lo 1955B
Lunch: Bangkok Joke 50B
Cafe: Rocket Coffeebar Sukhumvit Soi 49 147B
Dinner: Paikiew Duck Noodles 190B
Walking Steps: 17,292 steps

Eight hours of sleep definitely revived me except for the stubborn pain on my left neck to shoulder which I am hoping to be gone anytime soon.  I needed to get pedicure to wear my sandal, so went back to the same salon which I went last May.  The lady who took care of my toe nails was the same person as before, I liked her work.  As for hand, I should have asked to keep my nails a bit longer, but acceptable.  In the afternoon, I visited one of the largest local market, Khlong Toei Market.  From the experience living in the Philippines, I am kind of used to scenes of cutting pigs, chickens, or all kinds of creatures.  Living and dead animals, fishes, spices, cooked foods, motorbikes etc., with all mixed, the market had a peculiar smell and was energetic as expected.  Especially fishes were active by jumping and making splashes.  I was glad that I went there wearing my flip-flop.  As you can see in my photos, some scenes were a bit of shocks, but I guess it’s a part of food education.  Forty minutes walk each way was a good exercise and I am quite satisfied with the result of finding 30B mango in the off-season.  As for dinner, hubby brought me local food including my favorite Som Tam.  
Toothpaste: 110B
Nail: Prim Thonglor Nail 900B
Lunch: Left-over curry
Drink: MacDonald 46B
Dinner: Imuchan (อิ่มจัง)
Walking Steps: 16,324 steps

Hello Bangkokian, I am back! After all the challenges of last week, I surely need and deserve a break. So here I am again to spend time with my hubby. I flew with Thai Airways this time. After having gotten so used to with online check-in service of airline companies which releases me from the check-in time limit at the airport, finding out in the bus heading to Haneda that Thai Airways does not provide online check-in freaked me a bit. Despite the bad traffic, I was managed to reach the airport an hour before the flight, my rewarded-travel seat was luckily still there, uncancelled. Taxi to hotel is always a bit of challenge as the drivers skills and quality vary, and you never know them until you meet one. My driver this time kept saying that “I am not sure, but you know the place, right?” which made me nurvious but I made myself believe it should be okay since I had Google map and internet connection thanks to local SIM card. After all, he was a good driver as he was able to find my hotel without my direction, also agreed with me paying 350B though his request was 400B. The hotel has finished renovation of its pool, now we can enjoy the infinity pool! – though water was too cold today.. My day today was closed with the authentic Thai sweet, Mango and Sticky Rice. Mmmm, yum!

Dinner: Tops Supermarket ready-made Chicken Curry and Jasmin Rice
Dessert: Mae Varee Khao Niao Mamuang (Thai Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango) 130B