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Thursday, March 4, 2010

7 Things you MUST DO in Bangkok

We were back in Bangkok sometime in early Feb, almost a year of hiatus from the last visit. Bangkok remains as our favorite haunt for a number of reasons. Let’s just put it that we have our own enjoyable itinerary lined up. And for this, we concluded of 7 things you MUST do when visiting Bangkok :
1. Visit Jatujak market This is a weekend market and was boasted as the market where prices are relatively cheaper than other night markets. You can get almost anything under the sky in this market. You name it, they have it all here. It can take an entire day for you to cover the entire market but one rarely achieve this due to the stuffy and humid condition.

2. Visit Platinum Mall (every girls’ delight) I think most guys will disagree vehemently on this nomination but hey, this place is absolutely fabulous because it is a wholesaler place, a place where you get clothes, shoes, accessories, ornaments bla.. bla.. bla.. everything at wholesale price. Just when you thought this is getting better, you are then asked to purchase a certain qty in order to enjoy the shocking wholesale price. I am capable of losing myself in the frenzy of clothes searching . The wholesale price will make you gape and increase your tempo of flipping the clothes to look for the desirable design. Trust me, just allot more time here. 3. Induge in body massage and foot reflexiology Need I say much?? No one, I repeat, no one in this world doesn’t enjoy a good massage on the back or a therapeutic foot massage. The best part is you are able to enjoy a good 1 hour of traditional Thai Body massage for as low as RM16. Yes, no kidding. The foot massage either cost the same or somewhat lower. Hubby and I parted our money willingly on this heavenly “indulgence”.

4. Order Tomyam Gung and Pad Thai in every meal It doesn’t matter which stall you order your Tomyam Gung from or which restaurant clinch your Pad Thai order. Just order and eat them. In Bangkok, you get the most authentic and the best tomyam soup (in our opinion) but beware, they have both the clear soup type as well as the red soup. Make sure you order the one you intended to. Pad Thai is an infamous stir fried noodle dish made from rice noodles with ingredients including egg, peanuts, shallots, sprouts, tofu, and a choice of meat. The fish sauce is a major seasoning in this dish and the overall taste? Well.. it’s spicy, sweet, sour and salty. All in one. A lip smacking dish one mustn’t missed.
5. Drink RM2 coconut drink & orange juice Everywhere you walk in the bustling streets of Bangkok, you will stumble upon carts after carts where the pullers are selling either freshly squeeze local tangerine or coconut. It is extremely refreshing to drown down your throat with a cool natural drink. The price is standard, only at RM2. It is a healthy substitute to the much loved fizzy drink and by that, we meant Coke. So, gulp down as much coconut and orange drink as you can while there.

6. Eat everything mango The Thai mangoes are juicy, sweet and humongous. We didn’t eat anything ‘mango’ during our last trip so we made a point to do it this time. That lead us to this dessert shop called Mango Tango, located in one of the narrower lanes in Sukhumvit Street in downtown. The outlet offers all varieties of mango desert and naturally, we went for the well known Sticky rice mango desert. It was ..oh.. so.. awesome! Two thumbs up for it but they could’ve make the serving bigger. Next on our list is Mango Pudding. Just try out all kinds of mango dessert shown on the menu and you won’t be disappointed. 7. Get some foodstuffs in the supermarket Our favorite supermarket is none other than the one located in Siam Paragon. If you are a fan of the spicy tomyam flavor, grab as many different tomyam cup noodles you can. Somehow, the tomyam made in Thailand, tastes differently. And if you love snacking, buy Lays Potato chips because they are just so darn cheap here compared to KL.

We stuffed in as many packets of Lays as our luggage bag could accommodate. Well, having listed down ‘our’ 7 things, we realize we should touch on a few other pointers :
1. Avoid asking taxi driver to recommend local restaurants The biggest mistake you can commit in Bangkok (besides the ‘sinful’ illegal haunts) is to ask suggestions from the taxi or tuk tuk driver on places to eat because the answer they gonna give you is “Sum Bhum”. This restaurant is a throat cutting place. During our trip to Bangkok a year ago, we naively sought suggestion from the taxi driver, thinking that he will surely recommend some nice places that charge reasonably. We specifically asked for cheap and affordable yet delicious food and he drove us to this restaurant called Sum Bhum. The moment we alighted from the cab, we started to have a bad premonition. There were no local patrons we noted and the fresh seafood were unreasonably priced. We were ushered to a dainty table and were given menus instantly. One look at the price in the menu will send anyone running helter skelter. We did exactly that.

2. Get a new hairdo or haircut or a hair makeover. This came into suggestion because we have a friend with us who never fail to get a haircut every time he visits Bangkok. We guess the salons in Bangkok are generally more comfy and perhaps the Thais hair stylist there are more stylish than those in KL. Well..all we can say is, to each its own.


Penned by Rachel

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