Bangkok: Day two

Booyah! It's like my new favourite starter. Anyhow, day two is just loads of shopping and eating. That's what Bangkok is all about, at least to me it is. FYI, I'm going to post a really long one compared to, probably, the rest of them. Ops!

So we headed off to Mah Boon Krong, as known as the famous MBK. Honestly, I think it's over rated. The only reason we went there because there was air con and my dad hates the glaring sun. But usually air conditioned places clothings are generally more expensive due to rent and etc. And, if you think by setting out early to grap all the good things, you're wrong. I think Thai people are lazy, they open their shops pretty late! Around 10plus 11am! I guess that's normal business time actually, but still! I was really exciting and was looking forward to fill up my empty luggages!

Here are tips for shopping in Bangkok:

1. Bring only 1 extra set of clothings. You get more incentive to shop, because you must buy clothes to survive the day few days
2. Always put at least 1 empty luggage in another empty luggage and check in. You never know how much clothes and stuffs you're going to buy!
3. Portable fan. Bangkok is Asia, so you know the weather. It can be crazy.
4. Always ask them for the best price first. Try asking more than twice, they always tend to lie. Then from that price, bargain. :)
5. When you want to bargain, make sure you're the only customer there, they will go lower.
6. Bring a big bag so you can junk all the clothes in it to refrain from carrying so many plastic bags.

So back to topic. MBK, it is. The morning was pretty disappointing as most of the shops were just starting to open. So we got hungry and we ate..

Look Choup! They are like yellow beans made into little fruit-like shapes and even coloured!  I swear they are so yummy. Although I don't really like the taste of yellow beans, but if they are really fresh and good look choup, they taste really good. It's a must eat in Thailand. We use to buy boxes and boxes of it back to Singapore. 

Look! So cute right. Even though I can't really make up some of fruit or vegetables. Maybe they are like Thailand-made fruits or vegetables. Kidding! I sound like a total bimbo..

Waffles! Their waffles are really sticky though, so didn't quite like it. Don't try the durian stuffing one. It's like fake durian, tasted really gross. :(

We had to exchange cash for coupons to buy food from the hawker. How weird right? And the coupons were in 5s, 10s, 20s and 30s. And there were prices like 17baht for a medium size drink. I don't really understand how it work, but decided to avoid the system and bought a 25baht large size drink instead.

The really cheap abalone rice as compared to the Chinatown's one. There were cheap shark's fin soup and fish maw soup too, but it was gone really quickly before the camera was whipped out. It tasted horrible as compared to the first night's dinner. But it was like a 50-60baht soup, so what can we expect! 

Oh tom yum soup. Thailand's speciality too. Everywhere have a different taste, but all tasted very good. It's a must eat food in Thailand! :)

The really huge chicken drumstick my brother bought. He said it was really delicious because it wasn't dry, but unfortunately, it was pretty cold. :(

Another must eat in Thailand. Mango sticky rice! Omg, they are the best thing ever. The mangos are so sweet and the rice just taste so good with coconut and some random crunchy things on top.

A pretty weird, but cheaper than mango sticky rice, DURIAN STICKY RICE. First time trying it, it taste not too bad, but the durian taste wasn't that strong. 

So back to shopping again! Every shop is opened now and the place is just packed with people. 

The very first thing we bough after lunch was this 4 pretty bracelets. They were originally 200baht each, which is about SGD$8. Not very cheap. We asked the lady for the best price and she said 600baht in total. Then we tried to go for 500baht, but ended up with a final conclusion of 550baht instead. So when I was taking out a 500baht note, I was asking the rest whether they had a 50 or 100 note because I'm out of cash! Initially Desiree was saying we don't have a 50baht note, so she was intending to give a 100baht, but at the last minute she found a 50baht note! The owner thought we gave her a 100baht note because she was listening to our conversation, and returned us a 50baht note. So if you actually do the mathematics, we got 4 bracelets for only 500baht! The price we wanted. We were so thrilled and decided to RUN! Before she actually realizes. I know we are not very nice people, but well, they earn a lot from us too! :) Consequences of eavesdropping one's conversation. 

My parents were busy indulging in bird's nest, something that we can't appreciate, while we were shopping. So I guess everyone was having a good time! :) 

So we shopped till the sun is going down, and we decided to get to Siam Paragon! My boyfriend's mum said there were very good durian cakes at the basement, plus the basement is filled with food. Food, the best thing in the world. My family is a pretty big eater. 

Look at the huge cuttlefish or squid! Omg, we didn't even dare to try it. It looks pretty scary. :( 

Here is where lived the best durian cake, as said by my boyfriend's mum. But honestly, there weren't that fanstatic. It was average. I think Singapore's angie choice durian cakes are slightly better. But nevertheless, durian! :) Yums. 

We bought many little snacks back such as the dried skin pork thing and some pounded green chilli (which by the chilli eaters said it tasted like heaven) and many many random stuffs. If you love food, you must go down to the basement of Siam Paragon. :) And if you're rich enough, shop there. 

Then it is dinner time! Now my brother's girlfriend said at Grand Hyatt Hotel, there is this famous Thai cuisine there. So we decided to walk from Siam Paragon to there, because honestly, with the massive traffic jam, you wouldn't want to talk the taxi and I rather not take the trains there. Plus it wasn't that far and it was slightly early for dinner. So we walked this overhead bridge, where there is more accessories shopping! They were so cheap, you can't just not buy them. Plus you can still bargain for lesser! :) 

This is the four faced Buddha where all the tourist go there and pray and etc. Not really a Buddhist, but the amount of people there is a lot. One of Bangkok's famous tourist location. So if you haven't been the Bangkok, go learn about their culture! :)

Our dinner place! It's called Nara. Remember it's in Grand Hyatt. I'm pretty sure there are more outlets, so find them yourself! It have like many certificates like these at the entrance. Not only for 2011. I think it started way back around 2006, if I'm not wrong. But the food is simply good! So it's a must try. Pricing-wise, it isn't that bad. Pretty average for a sumptuous meal! So it's a must-try restaurant! The waiting time for the food is almost zero!

I hope the following photos do not make you drool and get a rumbling tummy! :) The photos do not do justice to the taste of it, trust me.

Appetizers. They are dried fish skin which really is very delicious that my parents bought 3 packets of it back to Singapore to eat it for dinner every night. I'm pretty sure all the 3 packets are finished by now.

Raw prawns with the sauce. I didn't really dare to eat raw food, but this prawn tasted fabulous. It's very sweet. And FYI the sauce is really spicy, so do not dip so much if you're a non-chilli eater.

A must eat food! Thai fish cakes! They taste so awesome. :) 

Thailand's most famous food! PAD THAI! The pad thai here was simply amazing that we double ordered it! You must try it, it's really very very good. The photo really do not do justice to it. 

Tom yum kung! You can never get sick of this in Thailand. :D 

Green curry chicken. Tasted okay. Heard their red curry one was their speciality after we got back to Singapore. :( 

Sweet chicken. :)

Otahs! :) They are really different from the ones in Singapore. Much much much softer, that's for sure, and the flavours of the otah really surpass the best kinds of otah in Singapore. 

So that's for dinner! They also have this speciality soft shell crab thing, which we did order, but didn't come. :( Neither of us realize till after dinner. We wanted to check if they did charge us for it, but the receipt was in Thai, so oh well. :( You must try and tell us how it taste like! I'll be so jealous of you. :(

The night was still young and we decided to do more shopping! You must find night markets by the road side, the stuffs there are extremely cheap! And we did found one nearby! Being excited and all, we continue shopping, until.. IT STARTED RAINING. But guess what?

No stopping for Yen's family! We decided to get drenched instead and continue shopping. It was pretty sad, because soon enough, all the stores started to close shop because of the rain. The water was getting into their merchandise, and we were forced to get indoors. Don't really know which mall we were in but we just waited and waited for the rain to stop. 

Staying indoors doing nothing.

and camwhore! :)

Desi's best buy of the day. Her cowboy necklace. :D She's so happy.

Decided to check the weather outside and still raining. :( Look at all the pouty faces. My mum is just too cute. :) 

Raining weather really sucks. Because it forced our shopping trip to cut short and return to the hotel really early. :( It was really a bad timing to go there with the monsoon period..