It's Bangkok part 2, and I thought I'll blog about a trip for once, and while on it for freshness.

It's the second time we came to Bangkok, first being exactly 6 months ago, and we made it a more focused clean up mission. Basically, it's to revisit the good places twice, and go after the ones we missed the first time round.

So the hotel of choice is Novotel Siam. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Princess Pathumwan because it was under renovation. Novotel loses out slightly; less glam lobby, smaller rooms and older surroundings, but I liked the bathrobes, really cool toiletries tray and it is slightly more accessible than PP.

We went straight for supposedly the best tasting noodles in Bangkok. Honestly, it does not match up well to roadside fare; it isn't exactly the best I've had. But it was good enough for a meal. After that, it's straight to Platinum, where the girlfriend did her stuff and spent the dough. We took a break at Swensen's while waiting out the rain, but had to agree to a hefty cab fare (not too hefty actually, but substantial) to make our way back to the hotel. We parked, packed and reloaded to dinner at Pan Pan, the only eating place on our schedule that is revisited from the first time. Pan Pan was good; the chilli mussels fair enough, but the tiramisu I got was disappointed. But they didn't charge me for it, so I got it free! But Conca's still has the best chilli mussels so far, and not many people would disagree to that.

we also had a massage session at the same place we went before. This has got to be the most painful session I've ever had; my masseur looked like a man! Basically, it changed my impression of a massage from relaxing to torturous, and I'll think twice about it the next time

Bed was early because we had a long day and another early one tomorrow. Which is today, where we headed for the floating market, a destination we didn't make for the first time round. It was quite fun; although dirty, but a good enough experience. I didn't like how we were dragged from one touristy shop to the next; we had quite abit of those today and it can be a waste of time. There was also some filming taking place there, but too bad it wasn't a major Hollywood production to brag about.

The highlight, however, was the cobra show, which I absolutely loved. Cobra vs mongoose. There were alot of angmohs today, and I'm sure more than one of them objected to this supposedly animal cruelty. They put in two cobras; the first one was pretty large. It tried to put up a fight, but after awhile it was trying to get out of the glass tank that had the mongoose in it. It was a funny sight; seeing the poisonous reptile trying to find a way through the glass panel.

Once the mongoose had the first one by the neck, they rescued the snake and put in a smaller one, which the mongoose owned. The cobra was practically spewing puke from being held in the death grip, and the trainers had to forcibly separate the mongoose from the snake.

I'm sure there would be more protests if it were the other way around; a reptile picking on a mammal. Such is the realities; people are just biased against their fellow mammals, and cry animal cruelty because of it. As for me, I'll pay to see the mongoose eating the cobra up entirely. Why not? It's only a snake.

After going through the jewelery factory, the handicraft shop and 20 minute traffic lights, we went to our lunch place, which was closed, so we had to settle for its neighbour, which also served delectable Thai food. Funny how they all taste so good. We then went to blow our remaining cash at Emporium's upper level, and came back to the room laden with biscuits and snacks.

Dinner was at Vientiane Kitchen, a distinctly Angmoh targeted place. They had ants' eggs as one of their specialities, but our dear baobei over here didn't dare eat it, so we settled for crocodile meat instead. Tougher than welldone beef. The tom yam kung was quite good, and the shrimp cake was fantastic. It became a staple of our 5 days trip in Bangkok.

We then headed to MBK to buy snacks and biscuits for our family and friends. It was quite a heavy load when we were done and through with it; having to trudge back to our hotel with 1000 baht worth of foodstuff (alot when you consider how cheap the things are here). But at least we got it over with instead of leaving it to the last day rush.

We slept in for day three, something I appreciated much compared to having to wake up early the past 2 days consecutively. Took our time and had a slower breakfast, where I discovered that the waffle was really, really something. Baobei preferred the vegs though; she's becoming a salad freak. Moo... She liked the bread as well, and the fact that she can just take a bite and throw the rest away without guilt is always a good thing.

The next stop was Platinum round 2, where the compulsive shopper scoured the place for any bargains she missed the first time round. I'll leave her to have the photos as evidence; I can't keep up with even half the stuff she bought. We also had Dunkin' Donuts there, where I discovered that they do not accept .25 and .5 baht coins. We also skipped lunch, thinking that it'll be better if we had a hefty dinner. They had this nametag engraving printer-like machine that we bit the bait for, and had two similiar keychains with our picture engraved on it. Quite nice.

Then at Emporium (again), we made sure we grabbed anything that we missed out the first time round, which was mainly biscuits and snacks. There was this LV private event going on there too. Nothing much of note there, it was just us trying to methodically move the supermarket back to our hotel room. We stopped by this absolutely attractive bag shop called NaRaYa, which had very similiar-looking bags, pouchs and other fabrics at really cheap prices. A full bag cost like less than 200 baht, and it definitely looks alot more upmarket compared to the shops at Platinum and MBK. I availed myself of a brochure thinking that it is a potential franchise opportunity. Pictures will do this more justice.

We then went to my personal highlight of the trip, food-wise. It's called Seafood Market and Restaurant. Simple name. It's this really big warehouse-like place converted into a huge eating area cum market. Imagine really huge. Like two times the size of mezzanine area of Ngee Ann City. We counted more than 100 staff on duty at 5.30pm. In fact, there were like 5 staff to one customer.

So the concept is much like Marche. Basically you go over to the market side and pick out the seafood that you want. I saw a lobster larger than my thigh, and lots of just about anything you can imagine lives in the sea that is edible. Although the prices are kinda ex (more like Singapore standards), the novelty made up for it. So, being first-timers, we had a guide to bring us around the array of food on offer, where we chose: oysters (for an omelette), a promfret (steamed), mussels (with ginger) and a large tiger prawn which cost about SGD20. The total worked out to about 1.1k baht, about S$44, including the veg that we got to round off the selection.

After this, we went to take a seat, where we will choose how we want each item to be prepared. This is expensive as well, including drinks and fried rice, we spent another 500 baht. So the total was about $60, substantial even by Singapore standards, let alone Thai. But it was delicious, it was fun, and definitely memorable.

We then took a stroll around Siam Square, but it pales in selection compared to Platinum Mall. We went back for an early night and an attempt to cook ourselves in the sauna. As we were separated, the girlfriend didn't dare risk fainting inside, so I went in for about 10 minutes at 82 degrees. After sweating like a pig, we retired for the night.

Day 4 saw us waking up early to head for the famed Chatuchak weekend market. We had a quick breakfast (the waffles are really good), and stole some toiletries before taking the train there. The girlfriend saw one of her students on the train.

Unfortunately, there was little worthy in there. I picked up a clock (again) for my brother and a few pairs of socks. We headed back to MBK and had cheap Shanghai food for lunch. We blew the rest of our budget on bags and shoes and headed back to the hotel to chill and prepare ourselves for the return to Singapore and back to normal life.

We took a nap, then woke up to restart the hunt for Anna's Cafe, the elusive restaurant that we failed to find the first time round. Armed with only an address given to us by the receiptionist, we tried to locate the cafe but failed miserably, wasting an hour and lots of walking. We tried the other location, but concluded that Anna's Cafe no longer exists in Bangkok. We then went to Raan Derm, the place we missed on day 2, for a regular fare of Thai food.

Shrimp cakes are the order of the day, and we had a good serving of it. The other food items were passable; we've had better elsewhere.

So we concluded the trip with a failed attempt at grabbing some Dunkin Donuts, then going to Siam Paragon's supermarket for some last minute bargains like lychees, 800ml Milo bottles and brownies.

Day 5 was just breakfast then straight to the hotel. Pretty uneventful but rightfully so given the hectic first few days we've had, and the impending return to reality after.

After unpacking, we went to catch The Happening, one of the largest pieces of crap they call a movie in a long while. It was so shite that I was pissed off at having to watch a movie as crappy as that. The idea was great, novel and interesting. The gore was there. The acting sucked, especially the lead actress (don't know who she was), but she had only one expression, and is the confused look. The camera angles were idiotic and stupid at times. I guess Sixth Sense was truly a one-hit wonder.

Ok, time to get back to getting somewhere in life!