Monday, May 16, 2005

sawasdee-kaa!

i am finally back from thailand (Bangkok), after a gruelling no-shit-for-3-days period. *pHew*~ well, at least the food on the plane was good :) I had Chocolate Ice-Cream from Haagen Daaz on the way to Bangkok, and on the return flight, Green Tea ice-cream!!!

i love the food from Bangkok. there's this dessert that i don't know the name of, but its really good! Boiled/Steamed Banana (it's sooo soft!) plus Coconut milk/syrup that's not sweet, but salty! wooo! and their Fried Rice is ALWAYS tasty, i ate that every morning & once 4 lunch and once 4 dinner (yes i'm an extremist). Next up on the list which i ate for 3 meals is Piggie's Big Intestine!!! i still haven't gotten enough of that yet! :D I hope there aren't any muslims reading this... Allah bless you! Coconuts are also a must, and Mango Sticky Rice (this time without the sticky rice). I would've loved to try the HOTTTTT!!!! thai tomyum but its such a pity i can't take spicy food at all. Try = Cry.

Shopping's great, everyone should visit Chatuchak, the weekend market that's really huge with tons of beautiful things to buy, ranging from food (fruits, drinks n all), to household items and clothing of course. Prices are fairly reasonably priced - and u get to bargain a little :) Their department stores are soo classy as well (unlike Singapore, only the middle-class and above ppl r able to afford the stuff there) but thankfully there was a sale on selected items from certain brands so mom & i grabbed pretty good clothing from there (lingerie included!). not much of a sale for those items we bought though, except for PaPa's camel shirts. but there was a 5% off for tourists on non-promo items. Another thing to note about the dept. stores is that they all have their own supermarket in there, eg, Tokyu Dept. store has Tokyu Supermarket and so does Central.

It's amazing really, to note that mom wouldn't spent SGD$40.00 on a top for herself, but would spend it on a plain, short-sleeved but collared shirt for PaPa. Proves to all that we love and would not hesitate to spend on lovely buys for our loved ones.

A thing about the tuk-tuks though, that i found to be irritating unlike before (which is last year), was that they'd offer to "sponsor" u on a ride to "look for free" at a Diamond Factory/Gallery where u get to view the workshop and showroom. It'll be on the way no doubt, but they persist & insist on taking u there. It is irritating because when u're sooo tired, u just wanna return to the hotel to rest ur aching feet and NOT walk around a diamond place that u KNOW u wouldn't be purchasing anything from. It gets irritating when that happens twice daily. Thus, mom and i took the fast & steady BTS train :) Sth like Singapore's MRT - but its kinda difficult to get a seat. A ride ranges from 10-40Baht.

Other than that, with the Thaksin Government currently in power, (mind u, Thaksin's the 2nd richest family in Thailand), the entire place seems to be more orderly and clean. Tuktuks and taxis are no longer allowed to wait anywhere and everywhere, as there are signs to show the designated areas for pick-up. People are polite & the toilets are in better condition than what u'll find at Isetan in Singapore. :) Some places charge 1Baht for a trip to the toilet though, which is approximately 4.2 Singapore cents i suppose.

With my excessive shopping, which includes buying the same top in 4 colours, plus other stuff, mom spent her last cent on me & had to change for more $. I felt so sorry :( but she insisted on buying a cute cherry keychain from louis vuitton for me since i haven't seen anything like it before. (Pic below).

i just have to mention this - some aunties (u may like to address them as 'ah-soh') barged into the ladies @ the airport immediately after getting off the plane.. pushing open the door of the first cubicle, which mom had previously done. they saw pootpoot in there and went in and started to flush the poor bowl repeatedly! only to realise it was stuck. HAHA! it was so hilarious i couldn't help but giggle and vibrate away in front of them, thinking to myself at the same time, "who in the right mind would flush other ppl's poo for 'em?". mom was controlling her laughter too, cos she couldn't believe there were ppl out there who could bear to and were so determined to flush off the poo that stared straight at them while they were at it. yep - that's how she described it. "the moment u walk in, the poo stares at you".

two comments from ppl left me thinking on my first day. upon arriving at the Bangkok International Airport, a lady from the same tour group passed a comment on my FAVOURITE measuring tape-like belt. she told her friends in her highest voice possible while staring at my belt "i wouldn't wear that, everyone would be staring at me!". then, her 2 friends turned to look at my belt and nodded in agreement (i wonder if it was to pacify her). she must've thought i was deaf to have spoken in that volume. i was shocked, but not too affected. i suppose she thought the belt would disclose your actual waist size - but HAHA! it doesn't XP the number that ur hook stops at does not reveal/disclose your secret size! :D

secondly, mom & i went to MBK for a meal. while waiting for her to come back with her food, i started to work on my fried rice first since i'm a slow-eater. to my surprise, i heard someone utter exclaim in Cantonese to his friends while looking at me in disgust, "lei yao mo gao chor ah.. yat gor yan sake fan", which means.. "did u make a mistake? u're eating alone?". oh my goodness. all my life i have been so afraid of eating alone because i feel insecure, especially in Singapore. so do my other friends, no one would actually sit alone at a table and ENJOY her meal at the same time, as Tracy said, "i'm afraid that people would stare @ me and think to themselves 'eeiyeer.. how come this girl is eating alone? she has no friends?'". however, after working at UFJ bank and being forced by my supervisor to take the quiet 11:30am lunch ALONE at lau pa sat for a day, i thought "hey! its not too bad. many other ppl are eating alone too" and oh gosh, that made me feel so much better :)

i think it takes some confidence to sit with a group of ppl u don't really know and eat with them and feel good about yourself at the same time, but it takes a greater level of confidence to eat all by yourself at a miserable, lonely corner or worse, just beside the escalator where everyone would notice you. too often, our friends (with the exception of close ones) do not realise how much we detest eating alone because of our sense of insecurity as i find that ppl are always hiding behind this facade that is created to give people the illusion that "I am so confident of myself, look at me as i show to all that i have grown into the world of heels and make up!" but deep inside the heart of the lady with "heels & make up", there is nothing but insecurity that is simply shown by her unwillingless to eat alone because of fear of what others may think of her.

on the other hand, this trip was pleasantly fruitful. one of e favourite things i bought from thailand was a Louis Vuitton Cherry (Cherrise/Cherise) keychain! I simply love these cute dangly heavy bally things in red & with kawaii faces! They cost me sth like SGD$14.90 and that ain't cheap (for Thailand's standard). i stood there and haggled the price down from SGD$21.00. oh, & i have a tom-yummy hot & spicy pic for all to enjoy (plus zee lil cherries at dee bottom okay?)! tadaa!:

sweet isn't it? i hope u weren't searching for the size :X btw the prints on the girly baby pinkie bra are hearts! ooh-lala! on which other blog would u be able to find a sweet pink bra + a girlish pinkie thong?

bee at 9:49 AM