Bangkok "reNdezvous" DAY TWO
DAY TWO / 28th April 2006, Friday1. Brunch was settled with 10bht (each) -packs of mango, pineapple & watermelon. Thais love to douse even their fruits with flavourful sugars & spices, e.g. chilli-flavoured sour mango. I should have tried that. Hai.
2. It was a revisit for me to The Grand Palace, after my first in 1996. A 500bht ticket allows you to visit The Grand Palace, The Temple of Emerald Buddha & some coin pavillion. Considering the sweltering hot weather and homogenously-looking glittering gold/red/bronze structures, the 500bht wasn't worth it. The fact that we skipped the coin pavillion is further elaboration of our general disinterest.Stare at the contrast between the black-tee lady versus the white-tee lady.
3. I had looked forward to taking one of those ferries down River Chao Phraya. But the King's men decided that they wanted to close the route from N6 to N16 where Pier Ratchawongse was along it, the destination of our choice which would lead to the heart of Chinatown, for a rehearsal for some dunno-what procession/ceremony. So we walked... from Chinatown to Soi Chula 32. The quest was to look for the famous Hock Kee goose meat restaurant which WR's aunt recommended to him.
*We practically spent the entire day walking from Happy House all the way to MBK, not mentioning getting lost as we turned into dodgy corners and tiny dirt-tracks.
4. I was expecting some kind of restaurant similar to Tung Luk's since WR mentioned that his aunt has a taste somewhat leaning towards the higher end. Plus the lady receptionist had wondered if we were getting married when she told us it is a restaurant catering to weddings or feasts.
At the end of it all, it turned out to be only a coffeeshop with 2 wings: one non-aircon & the other air-con. And shucks! We only realised the aircon wing after we finished our meal. The stewed goose meat & liver were tender, the blood cubes were soft albeit abit too salty, the oyster omelette was horrible. Not only did the chilli appear to be those creamy types like Maggi or Del Monte chilli sauce, the omelette appeared gooey and not crispy like those in SG. A total of 10 - 20 oysters were left untouched. Yuck.
There's the flamboyant lady towkay - with highlighted hair permed tai-tai style. Though there's a menu in both english & chinese, it's good to know a little Teochew (or Teh Chew in Thailand) if you want some recommedations - none of the staffs understood english nor mandarin; and the lady boss only speaks tehchew & a little mandarin.5. We moved on... to MBK Tokyu. A 8-storey building with the first 2 resembling any other shopping mall; the 3rd to 6th floor are more of warehouse-like retail stores, "where the action lies". Ate a bowl of durian with sticky rice; caught Ice-Age 2; just as written all over the WWW & guidebooks, we stood up for the national anthem with the screen showing a mtv with King Bhumibol & his involvement in an agricultural project.
6. Tuk Tuk from MBK to Khao Sarn.
WR: "How much to Chanasongkram, Khao Sarn?" as he flashed out Happy House namecard with a map at the back.
TukTuk Man No. 1: "150bht"
WR: "40bht"
I thought he was crazy to offer him less than a third of what the driver quoted! We waved him off after negotiation broke down, & flagged for another one.
TukTuk Man No. 2: "100bht"
Nah, not what we wanted. This man thought he was smart to want us to quote him a price instead of him telling us the rate. Hah!
TukTuk Man No. 3: "100bht"
WR: "40bht"
TukTuk Man No. 3: "50bht"
Whoa! Only then did I realise WR's tactic was to get the driver to reveal the actual rate by pushing down the price overly low. As much as he didn't like negotiating prices, I must admit he's a pretty good negotiator, IF he has the patience.
Total Expenditure:
- Room = 495bht
- Fruits Brunch = 30bht
- Grand Palace tickets = 500bht each
- Streetside grilled sotong = 40bht
- Goose meat dinner = 400bht
- Sticky rice + durian = 30bht
- Ice Age 2 = 120bht each
- Tuk Tuk = 50bht
- Other misc = 100bht
Per pax = [495+30+500x2+40+400+30+120x2+50+100]/2 = 1192.5bht (SGD$50.10)
posted by slingwoof @ 5/03/2006 04:43:00 PM
3 Comments:
you POSTED your photo!!! Hahahaha!
Opps wasn't laffing at ya, just never thot you'd ever do that :)
BKK sounds fun. I wanna go tooo!
haha.. yea.. i didn't expect myself to do it either. Self-mockery is pretty fun :p
Post a Comment
<< Home