Finally back from Bangkok, extremely relieved that my AirAsia flight turned out fine. :) This Bkk trip with the Bestfriend turned out a lot better than my previous trips with my family because I could finally try more thai street food (my family's not too comfortable with their hygiene). The street food was so good, so so good.
Flight: $250 return via AirAsia
Accommodation: $70/person in total for 4 nights (private room, double decker bunk bed)
Shane Hostel - Located just 100m (2mins walk) from Nana BTS, which was just 3 stations away from Siam, or 2 stations away from Chit Lom (where Platinum Mall and Pratunam market are located). In other words, the hostel was extremely convenient and CLEAN and hipster. It's only 8 months old, I booked it via airbnb (here), it was USD $25/night for the private room which accommodates 2. However, I checked the listing again and realised they have since increased the price to about USD $38/night. They do have other listings of dorms that accommodate 8 in a room at a reasonable price of SGD$16/night (~400 baht). The hostel was perfect, except for the fact that they didn't have a lift and my private room was on the 6th floor. Other than that, toilets were clean, the lounge at the first level was lovely. I would rather live in here than a cheap hotel at Pratunam area ($30+ / night) because I think it's better to live in a place that's conveniently located just beside the BTS (their sky train)
Shopping cost: SGD $800 (this trip was aimed at [massive] shopping and eating good food)
Shane Hostel
Bestfriend on our second last day!
Touched down at Don Muang Airport at around noon. This was the first time I flew to Don Muang Airport rather than the Suvarnabhumi Airport, it's a lot smaller but surprisingly much closer to the heart of the city. Took only about 20minutes to get to my hostel via taxi (320 baht incl toll), instead of the usual 40mins - 1hour ride from the other airport.
After we unloaded our stuff at the hostel, we left for Platinum Mall (walkable from Chit Lom BTS station, walk towards Central World then follow the curb down across the drain). I have to say that Platinum Mall is good only if you're shopping with a friend because they sell stuff at wholesale prices (meaning if you buy any 2 items and above, you get a discounted price). I usually don't buy much stuff at Platinum Mall because a lot of the items they sell are from China (meaning I can actually ship them from taobao anyway?), but turns out I still bought 9 items that day (think I spent 2500 baht that day). Wanted to let the bestfriend try the famous wonton mee and stewed pork leg rice across platinum mall (located at the small lane just beside Shibuya 19 mall), but it closed at 1pm if I'm not wrong so we didn't try it. To be honest, the last trip when I tried it... It tasted average, don't know why it's flooded with Singaporeans? Probably just because it's cheap, but that's about it.
We had street food for dinner, along the lanes outside of Central World while walking back from Platinum Mall to Chit Lom station. I am in love with their super soft steamed buns (you can choose chocolate, condensed milk, kaya or butter sugar). Also, I tried their fried egg with rice for the first time and goodness, I went crazy over it and ate the same old damn thing for the subsequent days - just fried egg and rice.
Butter Sugar Bun (10 baht)
Fried Egg and Pork Rice (30baht)
Day 2 (Saturday)
We started our day early and headed to Chatuchak Market (Mo Chit BTS Station), it's only open on weekends which is why it's best to head to Bangkok only on weekends. As usual, this is my favourite place to shop, the bestfriend and I went absolutely crazy shopping that day (actually everyday), that we were carrying extremely huge bags all around it's quite insane. After the massive amount of clothes shopping, we headed to the pets section where she bought a dog bag at a steal for SGD $15, I bought cute toys and socks for my dog haha. I think we were there from 10.30am till 4.30 pm; 6 hours of non stop shopping lol. We had chicken noodle for lunch at a random stall, apparently in Chatuchak chicken noodles are a must try. I googled and tried to find the exact stall, but I couldn't find any so I settled for a random stall but goodness the chicken noodles were delish (40 baht only).
After we were done shopping, we headed back to our hostel to unload our stuff (omg imagine climbing 6 flight of stairs to get to our room after all that shopping), before heading to Siam for dinner. We had dinner at the overly hyped Som Tam Nua (they've a few outlets everywhere, I ate the one at Siam Centre), then we had desserts at After You (also at Siam Paragon). Their ice cream toast really lived up to its name, so so so good that I had to go back on another day to eat it again.
We wanted to shop at the Siam night Market along Siam's BTS station at night, unfortunately throughout the entire weekend there was no sight of the night market along Siam. Every single time I visit Bkk, I'd see the night market there so I'm not sure why they didn't have it the entire weekend. I asked the security guard about it, he said he thinks it's because it's the New Year so they're taking a break?
Some random earrings I bought at Chatuchak (200 baht - SGD$8), pretty expensive and I know I can find it on taobao, but oh well I bought it anyway.
Really expensive handmade arm candy with real gem stones (yes I know I make my own jewellery but this was too pretty to resist.) I actually saw the same shop on my previous trip but didn't buy it because it was really expensive. So when I saw it again this time round, I just had to buy it. Not just one, but TWO. 890 baht for each bangle, that's about $36 each.
Just some floral skirts that I bought from Platinum Mall and Chatuchak
The toasts were really good as well! I tried the garlic toast and butter sugar toast.
Pretty good quail eggs that the bestfriend bought, apart from it being too cold when served to us.
I really like their pork balls.
Chatuchak Weekend Market
Thai Iced Milk Tea - never gonna order this in Thailand again, their threshold for sweetness is definitely too high for me.
Really good chicken noodles
The famous Som Tam Nua shop
Thai Iced Milk Tea - strangely overly sweet for me. I like the ones they serve in Singapore though.
The BEST chicken wings I've ever tasted.
Salted Egg Papaya Salad (apparently Som Tam means Papaya Salad)
It was extremely spicy, a tad too spicy for me, I had to eat it with a lot of rice.
Grilled Pork Shoulder which I loved because it's not fatty at all!
Nutella Toast with Banana (This is the bigger sized one, good for 2)
Day 3
We woke up at 5am to head to the Morning market at Pratunam about about 6am. It supposedly starts from 4am, but seriously don't bother to head down till 6.30am? When we arrived at 6am via a taxi, most of the stalls were just in the midst of setting up. Everything was only up at around 7am, the market is actually a lot bigger than I remembered, you just need to know where to walk extensively at. But again, I always felt that the Pratunam morning market was pretty trashy, I didn't buy anything from there but the bestfriend managed to get 2 items which was not too bad already. Most of the stuff weren't nice in my opinion.
We headed back to our hostel to catch some sleep after that, then headed out to Chatuchak again at 12pm. Did some more shopping and found my favourite garlic toast biscuit shop! Don't know why I didn't see it the day before despite walking the exact same route.
At night, we headed to Rod Fai Train Market (it's located slightly off the city, so we had to take the sky train to On Nut BTS then take a cab to the market, it's about a 15mins cab ride from the BTS station, the cab fare was really cheap but I can't remember the exact price, less than 200 baht?). It's my first time at this night market but this is the BEST night market I've been to in Bangkok out of the ~8 times I've visited Bangkok. It's a massive vintage market with quaint looking stuff, and lots of stalls selling clothes, assessors, bags, pets stuff, antiques, etc. It only opens from Thursday - Sunday, 7pm till 12am, we actually shopped till 11.45pm.
Mango Sticky Rice!!
Rod Fai Train Market
Really wanted to buy these dangling lights back! If only I own a vintage cafe, or have my own house.
Day 4
We had a really lazy day, woke up at 12pm after having an extremely long day the previous day. Headed to Siam to run some errands, the bestfriend did a gelish manicure while I shopped around. Also went to MBK to get some thai tidbits (durian chips, durian snacks, etc). This was the day we were so broke that we had to change more SGD to Thai Baht haha. The next time I head to Bangkok, I'm probably gonna have to bring SGD $900 over to live comfortably instead of my poorly estimated $700. We were supposed to head to Chocolate Ville to take pictures and stuff, but decided not to in the end. Also, we thought of heading to Victory Monument BTS to try their famous boat noodles, but we were just really lazy so we just shopped around Siam. Had street food - fried egg and rice again for lunch (that's how good their fried eggs tasted!) and more pork balls.
Oh and we went back to After You desserts for a second round. I had the ferrero baby toast this time round (smaller sized) and the bestfriend had the cheddar cheese toast. I can't quite decide if I prefer the nutella or the ferrero one, both tasted soooo good. I guess a nuts lover would probably prefer the ferrero one?
The BEST durian snack ever, so glad the bestfriend introduced this to me! 170 baht (about SGD$7) for the entire pack (with 2 small packs inside), it's pretty expensive I've to say.
Bought the box with mint diagonal stripes at Rod Fai Market, am so loving it. :)
For the first time in my life, I bought a soft toy for myself at the Rod Fai market. I'm definitely not a fan of soft toys, in fact I really hate soft toys as gifts, but craftholic is pretty much an exception. This is the fake version though (saw it on taobao before), but I bought it anyway since it was only SGD $6 and I really like the colour combination :)
It's been such a long time since I travelled with people -after all that crazy solo travelling over the past year-, that I can't quite get used to having people around me when I'm overseas. I honestly need to readjust my state of being, I think it's quite unhealthy being able to live in isolation for long periods of time?! In any case, I'm still glad to have the company of my bestfriend in Bangkok, she's probably the only person I can unleash my shopaholic self with.
Can't believe it's back to Singapore and NlE's resuming in just a couple of days. It's work full force ahead now and the next proper break will only be in December. Questioning my next travel destination...
Previous Bangkok Trip "Guide": here
