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Bangkok (Day 2) – Chatuchak, Central World & Roadside Dining

Veron Ang — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:31:31 +0000

A trip to Bangkok would not be complete without a visit to Chatuchak Weekend Market. There are over 15,000 stalls packed closely together, rendering it almost impossible to comb every single one. Nonetheless, we were determined to spend not just one but both days here! This is the place where the locals shop as well. In other words, it’s where you can buy things at a steal!

The variety of stalls sure is dazzling. Things you would find include food, fashion, footwear, furniture, floral and fauna, and furry animals. Do you see a common theme here? Well, I spotted this interesting sign at a shop selling street-wear.

Sure, it doesn’t make one bit of sense. The dirty word seems to have been thrown in there for the sake of having it. But the grunge designs of the t-shirts were pretty cool!

We were there around 9am, when the stalls were just getting ready for business and the crowd was thinner. Some shops had yet to open, so we got to see some of the cool graffiti art on their shutters.

Yet another big name has fallen victim to imitation products. This time, it’s our favourite blue — Tiffany & Co.

There were a number of stalls selling these silver pendants. One particular seller quoted 400 baht for each. The moment I walked away, she slashed the price to 200 baht. I didn’t bite. But this is a good example of why we can be daring when haggling. A good rule of thumb is to start haggling from 30 percent.

My favourite purchases are the Pocahontas feather earrings, and the purple racer-back top. It’s a gorgeous shade of deep purple, and features a phoenix in brilliant blue at the back!

I also got these pretty rose flip-flops for just 99 baht (less than 5 Singapore dollars)! I adore them so much! And at that price it’s a real bargain!

Besides the clothing and accessories section, which is the biggest section by the way, my favourite is the pets section. It’s where you can see cute animals such as puppies, kittens and bunnies. We even saw some bunnies in little t-shirts! Too cute!

I never thought chihuahuas were adorable, until I saw these puppies. They’re so small and precious!

The brown and white one is my favourite! He’s so playful and adorable! Yup, definitely a “he” :)

One of my favourite things about Bangkok is that the coffee is really cheap. There are many such coffee joints scattered around the city, selling all kinds of coffee at low prices. This particular Fresh Coffee stall at Chatuchak even packages the drinks in nice cups!

A tall cup of Blue Mountain coffee and hot chocolate cost under 2 bucks each! We could just sit there, sip on our drinks and people-watch…

…or grab a snack from one of the many food stalls. I was trying hard to find one selling mango sticky rice, but was disappointed :(

It hardly rains in Bangkok during the December-January period, but the sun really kills. Boy, does it get sweltering hot in the afternoons! At that temperature it’s no fun when you’re walking body to body in the crowd at a snail’s pace. So we got out of Chatuchak before the heat baked us good and vowed to return the following morning.

Waffle (my favourite!) stalls like these were quite common. The difference between these and the usual waffles I’m accustomed to is that they were smaller, thicker, fluffier and had fillings! Chocolate, vanilla, fruit, you name it. They were very yummy and we had a number of these during our trip. There’s one such stall at Mo Chit skytrain station, the one at Chatuchak.

Back in our hotel, we set down our shopping bags as we jetted off to our next location: Kaiton along Petchaburi Road. That’s where you would find the best chicken rice in Bangkok.

Initially, our taxi driver had no idea where to drop us off along Petchaburi road, but the moment I mentioned khao mun kai (chicken rice in Thai), he understood immediately and drove us right to the shop entrance!

Here’s my detailed review of Kaiton chicken rice.

A few stalls down from Kaiton is where I found what I’ve been craving for — mango sticky rice! At 80 baht, it wasn’t exactly cheap. I had the feeling I was overcharged for being a tourist. Can anyone verify if this is in the standard price range for mango rice?

Ooh la la! Overcharged or not, I couldn’t really care anymore because the food was what I had wanted for a long time. It tastes sweet, which is why it falls under the desserts category on most menus. The coconut milk is drizzled over the sticky rice, making this a rather sinful dish too.

The streets of Bangkok are filled with many interesting sights and landmarks. That’s ~~Gaysorn Plaza~~ Big C Pratunam, with a very eye-catching conical roof.

How many different coloured taxis can you spot? My favourites are the rare purple ones. The pink taxis were the commonest and seemed pretty reliable. Reminder: Always insist on using the meter!

A huge elephant led by a couple of locals caught our attention. They were offering rides to passers-by, for a fee of course. I noticed one of them was holding a bag of fruits. I had once bought the fruit to feed a baby elephant. The poor little chap was starving! I suspect that these elephants plying the streets are probably undernourished, and depended on people buying fruits to feed them. This particular elephant looked tired, and reminded me of a weary old man. Sigh.

The experience of dining right along the busy traffic is one you would hardly find in Singapore. But roadside hawkers in Thailand are pretty ubiquitous. Many of them are makeshift stalls. Surprisingly, some of them even sold fresh seafood!

Shrines can be found outside every major shopping mall where devotees would pray. The two shrines at Central World are dedicated to Phra Trimurti, the god of love, on the left and Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god, on the right.

Central World is one cool-looking mall with glass facades. Many giant billboard advertisements can be seen on it.

Even more gigantic is the Christmas tree! But it’s really this smaller one that I like.

Green men huddled together to form this beer bottle tree. With that distinctive red star, make no mistake that this is a Heineken! Notice that their outstretched arms are all pointing to somewhere in the distance. It’s a clever way of letting people know of GreenSpace, a Heineken bar on the 18th storey of the Zen World building.

The Christmas decor outside Zen World was a little bizarre. The blue Christmas trees were fine, but there were all these ships and military tanks. Not very Christmasy!

We did more shopping at MBK Center, and ended the night with a budget meal at a fast-food place called Santa’s.

Who says Santa only lives in the North pole? Here at MBK, you can visit Santa anytime!

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Japan (Day 5) – Harajuku

Veron Ang — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:53:02 +0000

This was the first (of 2 days) in Japan that I got to do some solo travelling! The excitement and exhilaration that stem from facing an utterly foreign city alone is something I haven’t experienced in a long time. As much as I love spending time with my friends, there would never come a day when I would stop craving for the freedom in going solo.

Each time I walked from my hotel to the Shinjuku subway station, I would pass by this particular Shinto shrine. (the two primary religions of Japan are Shintoism and Buddhism.) a typical Shinto shrine consists of these:

The torii gate. It is the orangeish red structure above. Made out of wood and consisting of two upright supports and two crossbars on the top, it is commonly found at the entrance of the shrine.

I noted its resemblance with the Giant Swing I saw in bangkok. Anyone else see the resemblance?

The main building where visitors make their prayers and offerings. There is also a chamber in this building where the most sacred objects of the shrine are kept.

A stage used for outdoor performances, dances and stuff.

Another torii gate at the same temple. This time it is grey in colour and made out of stone. I like it better when it is bright orangeish red though.

As I came out of the shrine, I noticed this huge crab on the front of a building! Advertisement for a seafood restaurant perhaps? Whatever it was advertising, it sure grabbed my attention!

This rainbow-coloured building caught my attention too. What a nice splash of colours!

Another brightly-coloured building in shades of purple and pink!

In the late afternoon, I paid a visit to Harajuku.

The wooden dark brown and white Harajuku station looked rather unique to me, very much unlike other subway stations.

Outside the station this guy was writing and selling calligraphy.

Photo by lao-ocean

Harajuku is an area in Shibuya that’s a popular haunt for cosplayers. If you go there on a weekend, you would see Japanese teenagers dressed up in various anime and goth characters. But well, I was there on a weekday so I missed all the action. That wasn’t what I was there for anyway.

The evening before, I was also in Harajuku when I chanced upon a tiny shop selling Care Bear merchandise. But it was late and the shop was already closed! Authentic vintage Care Bear merchandise is just so rare and expensive in Singapore. So this time round I was there again to browse all the stuff to my heart’s content.

I was contemplating whether to get a jumbo-sized Care Bear plush toy. (it was a rare vintage edition that could never be found in Singapore.) but carrying it with all my heavy luggage back to Singapore would be a total bitch. So in the end I got just these tiny little Care Bears instead:

Care bear keychains! Say hello to bedtime bear (in blue) and love-a-lot bear (in pink)!

As I came out from Harajuku station, I spotted this colourful mermaid signage made out of balloons! With something that striking, I knew I would never lose my way. If I needed to get out of Harajuku, all I had to do was keep a lookout for it. It opened the way to takeshita dori.

Takeshita dori is a popular street at Harajuku with many trendy shops catering to teenage fashion. You would find shops selling hip-hop fashion and cosplay costumes such as these:

I managed to get some shopping done along this street (though not from the store above).

Graffiti spotted in an alley along takeshita dori.

More graffiti!

King kong signage that stood out from the top of a building. I wonder if it had any significance. A godzilla signage might have been more apt.

On my way out of Harajuku, I stopped by Snoopy Town. This was a huge store situated directly opposite Harajuku station.

The entire store was dedicated to Snoopy merchandise!

This wasn’t the only Snoopy Town store in Tokyo. I spotted a few other branches too.

Snoopy-themed food miniatures! They are so cute and so detailed too!

I love miniatures!

Snoopy plush keychains in the shape of the statue of liberty!

Remember those pooh-themed snacks we saw in disneyland in day 2? There are Snoopy-themed snacks too!

After Harajuku, I went to Shibuya again in an effort to buy back all the things I lost in the cab ride the previous night. Eventually I ran out of yen (it’s only day 5!) and the banks and currency exchangers had all closed for the day! So I had to call it a day and head back to the hotel for a good night’s rest.

But not before having a simmering hot, slurp-icious bowl of udon for dinner.

As usual, rather than making loud, appreciative slurping sounds, I only succeeded in making soft sucking noises. But it was good for me.

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Japan (Day 3) – Shibuya, Gay Parade & Ginza [Video]

Veron Ang — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:14:00 +0000

It’s day 3 in Tokyo and we’re ready to do some serious… Shopping! There’s no better place to do this than trendy Shibuya. Besides shopping malls and department stores, the walkways and alleys here are packed with numerous fashion shops. You can practically shop ’til you drop (in the 40 degree Japan summer heat)!

Shibuya is an area where there is a high concentration of good looking people. You know how when you walk down Orchard Road, or wherever the trendiest part of your city is, maybe just 1 out of 10 people you see is hawt? Over here, the ratio is the direct opposite! Other than manufacturing cute and pretty things, the Japanese really know how to make themselves look cute and pretty too!

First things first, a little sugar to send us along our way. We found a neat little café tucked into the basement of a building in Shibuya and had ourselves some cake!

This tiramisu was made from scratch at the café and tasted divine!

Okay, now it’s time to hit the stores! Shibuya 109 (pictured above) is a landmark building. It spans several levels, each one of them packed with ladies’ fashion stores selling hip and trendy clothing. It is much like our far East plaza, only cooler and with many more stores.

90 percent of the shoppers here are young Japanese ladies. Most of them are hawt! Guys would totally go gaga over them!

Oh by the way, you can totally get away with wearing anything you like in Tokyo, regardless of how outlandish it may be. People here dress really loudly and they look good!

Tower records store. That bright yellow and red signboard is hard to miss!

Just along the road outside tower records, we spotted a brightly-coloured, funky-looking bus. It had no windows and was simply a mobile advertisement for mihimaru gt’s new album. (mihimaru gt is a j-pop duo.) it looked so cheery, many people stopped to snap pictures on their mobile phones!

During this 11-day trip, I had seen several unusual-looking buildings. They don’t look ugly or weird, but they do have some very interesting and unique shapes such as this black building below.

Doesn’t it resemble a giant robot or machine? In fact, it reminds me very much of a black version of r2d2 from star wars!

A very shiny building.

Some satanic graffiti on a wall. Graffiti are a common sight throughout Tokyo.

I think this is an arcade. There were arcades everywhere we went. Most of the time, there would be some guy standing outside, handing out leaflets and asking people to get in.

Cute car! Very cute car! I want one!

A large haagen-dazs café.

On the left is a McDonald’s outlet. The big-ass French fries totally caught my attention from afar! A McDonald’s staff, who’s an Indian, was holding a large sign and trying to get us in. Currently, they have a new burger in town — mcpork!

We opted for something healthier instead at a Japanese restaurant. Only after we saw the menu did we realise the place specialised in low-calorie food! Ugh! It would all taste bland and yucky! I had half the mind to run out of the place right there and then.

But luckily both the fish and the chicken tasted great!

After lunch, we were continuing our way when we noticed some press people and others with huge cameras and equipment standing around a traffic crossing. Then, we heard loud music and sounds of people cheering. That’s when we realised a parade was heading our way!

And not just any parade…

A GAY parade! That rainbow-coloured gay pride flag is unmistakable and instantly recognisable!

Gahhh!

Boy, I had never seen gay events like this before. It was a full-fledged procession involving hundreds of people! The traffic warden had to be there to direct the flow of the traffic because the parade was a really lengthy one that had to be broken at frequent intervals.

There were even a couple of girls (I think) who flashed their boobs at the crowd. Too bad I didn’t manage to get a picture! Damn!

I don’t quite get the bubble thingy. Was that meant to resemble a giant condom or what?

Here are some videos of the gay parade! Check them out!

Youtube link

Look out for the guy in the bikini!

Youtube link

The atmosphere was really cheery and lively! Everyone was psyched and gay!

Youtube link

Lesbians! They were right at the end of the parade and were a sweet relief after the long procession of gays.

Here’s a pink billboard at Shibuya!

Traffic crossings like these are the norm in Tokyo. There are diagonal crossings so that people can cross in all eight directions.

In Singapore, we have just one such diagonal crossing if I’m not wrong.

In the evening, I met up with my friend Beni who’s always country-hopping due to work assignments. For the past 8 months, he’s been living it up in Tokyo! Dude loves it there.

He brought me to this neat Japanese restaurant called “gonpachi” for dinner.

We had yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and tempura with sake and shochu! I never fancied the taste of sake and found myself liking shochu better. (this is a prelude to our drinking session which would commence later that night.)

Throughout the entire meal, our waiter was extremely polite and helpful, much like everyone else at the restaurants I’ve visited in Tokyo. I wonder how they maintain such high service standards. The best part is that we don’t incur any service charge or taxes at restaurants; the amount we pay is the exact amount that’s printed on the menu.

This is Ginza at night, an expensive district that’s the equivalent of fifth avenue in New York city. Various designer brand houses can be found here.

The chanel building had an eye-catching black and white animation on the front of its building. It’s really nice.

Gucci? Pucci?

There’s Louis Vuitton, of course.

And the ultra beautiful christian dior building, complete with a star on top! It looked gorgeous!

There’s the apple building. The lit apple logo juxtaposed against the silver building surface reminds me of the macbook pro laptop computer. Why don’t we have any apple building in Singapore? I’ve already seen at least two of it in Tokyo.

The Ginza 4-chome intersection. This distinctive building with a clock perched at its tallest point is a landmark in Ginza.

After dinner, we proceeded to the nearby Marunouchi area for drinks.

P.c.m. Is a pub located right beside the Tokyo international forum, a building that hosts exhibitions, concerts and such. Kinda like our very own Esplanade theatre.

The design of the pub was pretty chic. But they had just one kind of beer that was contained in plain green bottles; it wasn’t good. So we hopped over to the Belgian beer café at the basement for some real beer!

Ahhh! Good ol’ Belgian beer! Belgian chocolate goes great with Belgian beer! It’s my first time having chocolate with beer!

They had all kinds of Belgian beer in addition to the more familiar Hoegaarden and Stella Artois. Leffe, westmalle, chimay, etc. I had never seen any of these before! Does anyone know of any place in Singapore where we can have these?

Every beer that we ordered came with its own corresponding coaster! We greedily asked the staff for a full set!

Ta-da! More souvenirs from Japan!

As though we hadn’t already taken enough freebies, when we left the pub, the staff handed us some complimentary Japanese snacks too. Wow!

The pink and green ones were like kueh (asian cakes and pastries) and had some sort of fruit at the core. They were yummy!

Oh yeah, I puked some later that night after downing a tequila shot with all that beer. I forgot the important lesson I learned before — never drink different kinds of alcoholic stuff one after another (beer with wine, wine with tequila, tequila with champagne…). And never drink on an empty stomach!

The streets of Tokyo are just as safe as Singapore’s, if not safer. Even in the wee hours of the morning, we could walk the streets feeling secure. There weren’t any sleazy or shady characters lingering about. Instead, we spotted sparse groups of people sitting around, just chatting. And homeless people too.

For some reason, having seen Tokyo at both its busiest and quietest made me feel right at home.

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STAMP Singapore – My Pick #1

Veron Ang — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:46:25 +0000

I’m surprised there hasn’t been much publicity about this, which is why all the more I should blog about it. Have you seen colourful postboxes such as this one lately?

Painted postboxes are the latest form of public art in Singapore. Early this year, the public was asked to send in creative designs for postboxes to STAMP, a nationwide art project. Out of these submissions, 40 were chosen to transform regular, boring white postboxes to works of art!

Chances are, you would have already come across these beautiful postboxes, called “STAMPs”. They are found in high-traffic areas such as the central business district and Orchard road. I’m a sucker for art and all things pretty, so I’m thrilled to see this thing taking off.

View pictures of all 40 postboxes on the website or on flickr. Pick your favourite 5 and vote! Voting ends April 29.

Over the next few days I would briefly showcase the 5 designs that I’m voting for, in no order of preference:

The one I’m featuring today is a playful design that spoofs the famous Louis Vuitton signature print. With Singapore symbols, of course. There’s the lion head, shopping bag, and an abstract icon of the orchid. I love that it looks so simple, yet striking at the same time. This one is definitely a head-turner. Everyone recognises the print, especially people in Orchard road, where this stylish postbox stands proudly outside far East shopping centre.

How fun! In recent years, there had been some attempts to install public art and sculptures. A few places were even designated for graffiti art which, to be honest, isn’t really art is it?

This project is something that the public would actually like. I really hope these beautifully painted postboxes stay around for a long time. They are definitely a breath of fresh air!

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