J-emine's reflexionando

We spent 4 awesome days in Bangkok last week. Save for the saga that I had to endure in the last 12 hours of departing from Bangkok, it was a great getaway to wind down from the year’s drama (good and bad) and to bask in all that the Land of Smiles has to offer – food, shopping, and massage – was our selected choices.

Day 1: Massage, Dinner at Terminal 21

We arrived in the evening due to flight delay and quickly checked into the hotel, drop off our luggage and made way to our massage appointment at Healthlands. The 1.5 hr massage was much-anticipated but a real let-down; Healthlands has always been the recommended pit-stop for massage by the local peeps. I guess it boils down to your luck and which therapist is assigned to service you, unfortunately for us both we were tagged to therapist with lacklustre massage skills – strokes were either too hard or rushed. I’ll need to remind myself to ask the local peeps for their house therapist next time round.

We were both famished after the massage and the nearest shopping mall in the Asok vicinity was the newly opened, Terminal 21.  Have a Zeed, was the suggested dinner venue by a mutual friend and so we decided to give it a try. It was near closing time, so the place wasn’t too packed and the food came promptly – good for us and our hunger pangs! The selected dishes were crispy salmon and papaya salad, seafood tom yum, fried kale and rice. The fried kale was my favorite of the lot – crispy, crunchy and I just couldn’t stop reaching for more!

Affordable, Thai food with a modern, cafe-ish touch to it. Worth the visit and a good start to unleashing the holiday tummy within us!

Day 2: Platinum Mall, MBK, Siam Paragon and Centara Grand Rooftop Bar

Today was D-day of shopping to our heart’s content at Platinum and Pratunum for wholesale clothing and accessories. Its been 4 years since my last visit to Platinum so I was keen to see what it has to offer – we decided to hit the shops once it opens to have a good look and to beat the incoming crowds that tends to pour in after 11am. Good strategy, I must say – within one hour we were both lugging around few bags of clothing and accessories!

The clothes there are definitely not of great quality but as the cliché saying goes – you pay for what you get – but the selections are indeed, fashionable and makes good separates/ mix and matches that helps jazz up your wardrobe and not a killer to the pocket. Accessories shopping was my favorite part of the whole shopping adventure at Platinum,  wide variety and range of tribal, neon, statement, vintage, beads, stone necklaces/bracelets etc – you name it. I bought back a good bundle that will probably get me through the next 6 month or till my next accessories shopping (BKK or Philippines,the latter is my fave place to shop fro accessories) trip. On a similar note, Platinum mall is separated in two zones, small shop-fronts but rather orderly just make sure if something catches your eye either (1) buy it then and there cause you’ll prob won’t find the shop again or (2) MAKE sure you note down which level, shop number/name, and which turn and turns you need to take to get there!

One of our mutual top buys were these indie t-shirts, drawn by local artists – extremely comfy and sweat absorbent.

Happy with our purchases we ended the Platinum Mall adventure and headed onto MBK and Siam Paragon, quite a distance to walk but good exercise and perfect excuses to eat a teeny, bit more!

Dinner was at ‘ Another Hound Restaurant’ by the Greyhound Group at Siam Paragon. There’s just too many hypes on the Greyhound cafe that we simply had to check it out. We were pretty lucky to be third in queue and only had to wait awhile to be escorted to our table.

The greyhound’s acclaimed chicken wings is not to be missed is what I’ve been told, so that was on the list and since we were up for some pasta we opt for the ‘Fusli Pad Thai’ and ‘Spaghetti with Thai Anchovies’ – both great choices;  tasty with a good bland of traditional and modern spruce to it. Of course it went down even better with the glass of white wine we each had; completed our greyhound cafe meal with a slice of banana sponge cake (to share of course) from their dessert menu. Oh yes, the diet and eating clean mantra was out of the door on this trip. No regrets though!

Despite the popularity of the cafe, service and quality was not compromised and definitely a must-visit/go back for me now. In the same complex is Chilli’s Cafe, another restaurant to try on my list but pity we had to give it amiss. Next time..heard it’s tom yum soup is out-of-the-world good (biased opinion, maybe?)

Impromptu suggestion came from the gf on our walk back to the hotel to have a glass of vino at Red Skybar & Bistro at Centara Grand. I was there on my last work trip and really enjoyed the view and drinks – wasn’t too sure in our casual get-up would we be allowed in, but since we had flats reckon our chances were high – lucky for us, not only did we get in (we saw a couple being turned away), we got some cool seats too. In front of our table was the house DJ spinning away, table on the right was some 40-year-old local, tai-tais flirting with the group of caucasian men in the next table and table on the left was a group of Thai pretty boys – gay ( reads: merry too *wink wink*) and intoxicated. And, we happily soaked up the view, enjoyed the nice breeze and our martinis.

Day 3 : JJ Market, Roast, Thong Lor, Central Mall and Hotel Lounge

Our last full day in BKK and undoubtedly, we had to make the most of it. First stop, JJ market in the morning – I’ve almost forgotten how big, how bad the ventilation is and the dreadful pet section of JJ market. Those close to me knows that I have this infinite fear of hamsters, mice, and anything close or holds similar resemblance; and it’s not a small case of fear – so I always say to whoever that must know “if you want me to faint or collapse from shortness of breath, throw it my way”. Trust my luck that the taxi driver dropped us off at the entrance nearest the pet section, the gf had to buy pet stuff for her beloved pup and I had to walk far, far away from the section or risk being carried out of JJ and definitely not due to a heat stroke :). * Sorry, Sher –  for being a psychotic case at the pet section.

After spending the most at JJ market on stuff for the home – cost more than a single piece of clothing at Platinum – Sher bought a beautiful enamel, wooden salad bowl set and I bought two elephant candle holders for a chest we have at the stairway, we were good to go and explore Thong Lor area.

Thong Lor is seemingly the upcoming area in BKK with cafes and wine bars sprouting up and around the neighborhood, catering to the expatriate and yuppie community. I kinda think it’s an equivalent to Holland Village/ Dempsey here in Singapore. On our list to try was Roast – upscale cafe boosting a pretty, decent brunch menu. It was close to 30 mins queue-wait till we decided that we’re fine with sitting outside in the smoking area and to give the high ceiling, combination of rustic and vintage inside decor a go. We both decided to order two dishes from their brunch menu to share – crab cake benedict and croque monsieur.

Roast is known for their eggs benedict and I must say their do-up of crab cake benedict was delicious. The mixture was springy and decent amount of crab was used, well… enough to taste it. The croque monsieur was a good cheesy mash couple with few slices of rather saltish ham. The only gripe is the portion was rather small for brunch meals – we were probably expecting similar portions to Wild Honey hehe. We wanted to save our coffee calories for Jones downstairs, and was told later on that Roast brews a mean cup of coffee and truly means business when it comes to roasting their coffee (they have their own coffee roaster). Oh well, that calls for a second visit, right? Gosh, I am finding a lot of reasons to head back to BKK again.

Since we were in the premise we couldn’t forgo checking out Mr. Jones Orphange as well – yes, we were stuffed from brunch but couldn’t resist the beautiful cake displays and the resemblance of vintage playground filled with teddy bears at Jones. Goldilocks having tea was the image that popped into my mind when our lattes and desserts were served;

Overall, the lattes and cakes were decent – not overly sweet which suited our palate. The place definitely didn’t blow us away but a nice pit-stop if you were in the area and had time to spare. Roast, on the other hand is definitely worth a visit back, to try their tapas and dinner menu.

To be continued…