chialat foods

Dim Sum @ Celestial Court Again...

2011-10-13T18:49:00.002+08:00

Restoran Beriani Asif

2010-12-01T00:02:00.012+08:00

Streamyx sucks! Yes, it has nothing to do with this restaurant but I just want to pour out my anger on TM. As you can see my postings are greatly reduced lately and the main reason is my streamyx line is not stable... some of the times it was disconnected and most of the times it was slow. It takes forever to load the pics! I called TM to make a complaint and they called back the next day saying that it had been fixed. But the problem still persists. Mind you, this is not the only complaint that I ever make but at least 3 0r 4 times already. I guess my patience is soon running out and I'm giving up Streamyx, the Internet Service Provider that I have been using ever since I started to use internet.

Well, back to this Restoran Beriani Asif... my second time to this restaurant on last weekend and found that it deserves for a post here.

It's located behind Lot 10 and at the ground floor of a 4 storey flat. It is not appealing from the outside and the setup inside is small but clean.

Mrs. Chialat ordered a Mango Lassi... @Rm4.00. Tasted OK but not extraordinary.

My Teh Tarik...@2.00. Sweet as usual.

The Lamb Shank... @RM16.00. This is the dish you should not miss. Worth every penny! It's hard to describe the taste but what I can say is close to rendang. The size was big enough to share for the 2 of us but the guy at the next table was actually ordered one just for himself alone to go with a plate of Nasi Beriani and Naan.

We also ordered a plate of Nasi Beriani... @RM 4.00. It was perfectly cooked... not moist and not too dry. It was heavenly to go with lamb shank especially the gravy.

The plain naan... @2.00. They do offer Cheese Naan and Garlic Naan. All of them tasted good. Actually the cheese and garlic naans are good enough to eat it on its own without having to dip with gravy. It's kinda waste to go with the lamb gravy as it will overwhelm the taste of the cheese... and most importantly the price of cheese and garlic naan is a bit pricey...RM5.00 each. So trust me, the plain one is good enough unless you wanna eat it own its own.

Restoran Beriani Asif

No.9, Jalan Padang Walter Grenier,

Off Jalan Imbi

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 012-2498764

Satay Celup @ Capitol Satay, Melaka

2010-10-01T22:58:00.017+08:00

The famous Capitol Satay Celup (lok-lok) of Melaka... this set of photos was actually taken quite a few months back while I was making a business trip down to Melaka. It was a short drive from KL and my food buddy just tagged along. He wanted me to bring him to try this Satay Celup which he just heard of but never had the chance to taste it before. So here we came...

The place opened at 5 p.m and we reached there around 6:30 pm. Just look at the queue and if it was not my food buddy's insistence and sheer determination, I would not be part of the queue. Mind you, we had to queue for 45 mins on a normal weekday! Can't imagine what would it be like on weekends.

Got imitation one also??
It is a small place... no wonder we had to queue for so long.
Both of us ordered coconut for RM3.50 each.
The bread and cucumber for Rm2.50 a plate. You can just skip this one.
The foods are skewed or placed in a plate and placed in a big freezer... Just pick your own!
All kind of balls...
Tiger prawns...
Balls again...

The fried ones...

We picked ours...

All your foods to be dumped into this pot of boiling mixture of spice sauce to cook. The spice is a bit too strong for my liking. It was overwhelming the original taste of the food...no matter what kind of food you take, all of them would just taste the same...SPICE taste!

Half way through the meal they brought out 1 huge prawn each for us which was priced same as other sticks. (RM0.80 each if I remember correctly.)

Pacific clams and fake abalone...

The total bill came to about RM50 for 2 of us(can't recall the exact amount). By the time we left, there were people still queueing for their turn. If you haven't tried this tpye of "lok-lok" before, no harm to check them out on your next visit to Melaka.

Address:

Capitol Satay Celup Restaurant

41 Lorong Bukit Cina

75100 Melaka

Malaysia

Ho Chi Minh & Mui Ne - Part 2

2010-09-10T13:01:00.009+08:00

3 days are more than enough for Ho Chi Minh City. Mui Ne here we come...

Mui Ne is the premier coastal beach resort in Vietnam. This kilometers-stretch-of-white-sand-beach in Mui Ne is also a paradise destination for kite-surfers and wind-surfers. The long stretch of beach is just like the beach at Sanya in Hainan Island but the Mui Ne town is very much less developed compared to Sanya. However Mui Ne is quite popular for beach vacation among Russians. I don't know why but you can see many of their signs are in Russian language. Though it is only 200 km away from HCMC, it still takes about 4-5 hours bus ride. The bus ticket was about USD6, which we bought from Shin Tourist Corp as well. It's quite convenient and you will be dropped off just in front of your hotel.

One of our meals - The Seafood Basket... The only food that we took there which I can remember of. The basket came with 2 huge tiger prawns, 1 fish, some standard size prawns, squids and scallops - about RM 40.00.

Our Hotel... Sailing Club Resort

I chose this hotel with no particular reason but based on the good reviews from Tripadvisor. It's rated #1 in Tripadvisor. It's a small boutique resort that comes in standard rooms and villas- not more than 40 of them in total.

The poolside... small. Quite empty during our stay.

The room... comfortable bed.

The bathroom... bronze lotus leaf sink.

The shower... just shower no bath.

The toiletries... quite a good one.

Outside our room...

The garden and villa...

The Sapa House... where our room was.

Water feature before the restaurant...

Recreational place...

Open air dining... where we took our breakfast everyday.

The way leading to the pool and restaurant...

The breakfast bar...

Breads, cereals and fruits...

Vietnamese coffee... very nice coffee that you should not miss! All the coffee came in half empty glasses. Why can't they fill up the glasses completely or just use a smaller glass? In fact all the places we had coffee were served half empty and above comment was not limited only to Sailing Club.

We could also order 1 dish from the ala-carte menu...

Mrs. Chialat ordered her sandwich...

I ordered a breakfast set...

The spa... we had the chance to try them out but it was just so so only.

The other "must-see" places in Mui Ne...

We booked our half-day tour at a shop next to our hotel at USD 8 per person. This Chinese made jeep would bring us to the Fishing Village, Fairy Stream, White Sand Dune and Red Sand Dune.

Small village...

The Mui Ne Coastline...

The fishing village... hundreds of fishing boats docked at the port that made it a breathtaking view!

The floating baskets were used to tranfer the catch from the boat.

The Fairy Stream...

The Withe Sand Dune...

Pond at White Sand Dune...

Pond that full of beautiful lotus...

Red Sand Dune...

My advice to those who want to visit these places... go EARLY! The sand was damn hot when we reached there at around 11 a.m. It would be good to start the tour at dawn as you could see more activities at the fishing village when the fishing boats come back with their catch and then reach the sand dunes before it gets too hot.

Evening stroll outside our hotel... street vendors started to set up their stalls.

Shop that sells surfing staff...

The beautiful garden of Terracotta Hotel next to Sailing Club...

Our flight back to KUL was at 20:00 p.m and the bus departed from Mui Ne was either in the early morning or afternoon. We ruled out the afternoon bus as it would be too rush and on the other hand we didn't want to leave our hotel in the early morning, so we booked a 7 seater Toyota Innova for 4 of us at USD 70. It was supposed to be a fast and comfortable ride to the airport but ended up quite a tortured one.

To be safe, we checked out at 1:30 p.m although the journey supposed to take just 2 hours by private car. I was worried as we would reach the airport early and the check-in counter was not yet open for our flight... Damn! We would then stuck in the airport for hours with our luggages and nowhere to go. But all my worries soon diminished...

Our taxi driver in his early 20s, maybe just got his driving license not long ago where he shamelessly drove slightly faster than a bullock cart- 40-50km/hr, all the way from Mui Ne to the airport! Mrs. Chialat was grumbling all the way and wanted me to tell him to drive faster or asked him to get off and let her drive. Unfortunately he didn't understand English and we had to bear with it. Though I was tired but I didn't dare to close my eyes even for a minute as Mrs. Chialat was sitting in front and I was worried that she might suddenly choke him to death. Thanks god this never happened and we finally reached the airport at 7 p.m. That scared the hell out of me as I thought we would miss our flight!

Back to Part 1...

Mai Ramen @ Jaya One

2010-09-04T16:57:00.009+08:00

Mai Ramen is a newly opened casual Japanese Cafe in Jaya One. They were just opened in August 2010 and I get to know them through Mydeal.com.my. You would find new deal every 24 to 48 hours on Mydeal.com.my with discounts from 50 - 90%. You can buy those deals online and they will send the hard copy voucher to you within 7 days. But so far all the deals that I bought from them were in e-vouchers that emailed to me immediately once the payment was made. I can just print it out and use it straight away. The Mai Ramen set lunch deal at RM12.50 instead of Rm25.00 was the recent deal that I bought from them and used it few days ago.

Exterior of Mai Ramen...

Interior...

The Cold Green Tea... my glass never get empty as it was filled up whenever half empty. Excellent service!

Bowl of Salad... was first to serve.

The Japanese Hand Roll... luckily it was a cooked one- grilled chicken (I don't take sushi) and one piece for each set.

Gyoza (fried dumplings)... 3 pieces for each set. Not bad!

Takoyaki (octopus balls)... 2 balls for each set. Quite tasty!

Tonkotsu Ramen (Sliced pork noodle)... Just 1 slice of pork and a piece of pork rib with half a hardboiled egg. Not a big bowl but just nice when all the other dishes came together.

The ramen was perfectly cooked and was springy.

Small Plate of Fresh Fruits... watermelon and honeydew melon.

Green Tea Ice Cream... just a small scoop!

With just RM12.50, you get all of the above. Value for money? After the meals, we decided to purchase another 4 sets of deal for future "consumption"... but must be used by end of Sept.

Mai Ramen

No.13-G, Jaya One

46200 Petaling Jaya

Selangor D. E

Ho Chi Minh & Mui Ne - Part 1

2010-08-29T12:19:00.016+08:00

I had never been to Vietnam before and didn't plan to do so until the damn AirAsia had their promotion last year. Damn! It was irresistible and I just went ahead to book Ho Chi Minh and Guilin straight away. The return ticket for Ho Chi Minh was just RM 158 per person and RM 219 per person for Guilin. The trip to Guilin was taken in January and Ho Chi Minh was in March 2010. I didn't know what to expect from Saigon (fondly called by the locals) but cleverly booked ourselves a 5-day-trip without doing any "studies" on the city first. When I started to do the "studies", only then I realized that 5 days were too long for just Ho Chi Minh City alone. The advices from the forumers of Tripadvisor were either spending 2 days doing the Mekong Delta Tour or 2 days relaxing at their beach resorts in Mui Ne. I Chose the later.

Ho Chi Minh City... here I come.

Sanouva Hotel

I booked this 3 star hotel was because it had good reviews from Agoda and Tripadvisor. The location was perfect and the room was clean but small. It was walking distance to all the attractions in HCMC. The Ben ~~Ten~~ Thanh Market was just a 5-min-walk!

The Lobby... small.

Outside of the hotel... busy.

The Toilet... clean.

The Shower... no bathtub!

Only 1 room was ready when we checked-in. 4 of us were squeezed in this small room when these photos were taken, so it was inconvenient to take the bed shot. Anyway it was a queen size bed and one side of the bed was placed against the wall. Only left one side for you to get up and down... quite inconvenient during the night when you wanna go toilet. The another room that given to us later was OK though. Well, for 55USD a night can't really complain, can I?

One of the many war museums in Ho Chi Minh City which was near to our hotel. Spent less than 10 mins inside the museum. Well, the weather was extremely hot during our visit there in March. It was easily more the 36 degree C! That really made my life miserable and less "motivated". Therefore didn't spend much time on each attractions and not so many photos were taken during this trip as well.

Check out their cables...

The Notre Dame Cathedral...

The Post Office...

Inside the post office...

The Reunification Palace...

The park outside The Reunification Palace...

The street vendor...

Didn't know what was she selling and didn't dare to try...

But we confidently walked into Pho 24. This was recommended by lots of people. This is a chain restaurant for beef noodle which you can find quite a number around the city.

The standard ingredients for a bowl of good beef noodle...

The beef noodle... sorry, a bit messy. (was hungry and only remembered to take this photo after half way trough the meal) Not sure if I had too high expectation on the noodle as so many people recommended it, to find that it was just OK only. I also had the chance to try out another pho restaurant, Pho 2000 which was frequented by former president Bill Clinton on his last visit to Vietnam. Unfortunately I didn't find it something extraordinary as well.

The spring rolls... quite good but damn small. Just compare its size to the small sauce plate beside.

The Vietnamese coffee... quite good and turned out to be our "official" drink for everyday's breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tour to The Cu Chi Tunnel...

The tunnel was located 70 km northwest of Saigon and about 90 mins drive from the city. The tunnel network stretches over 250km in total length that comprises kitchen, shelters, sleeping chambers, hospital and etc. Quite an interesting place to visit when you are in Saigon.

The way to make yourself disappear...

The B52 bomb crater...
The booby trap...
The small tunnel... we were made to crawl 10 meter of the tunnel like a Vietcong... damn chialat man!

The destroyed US tank.

* Tips 1 - Only change VND when you reach there or you can change USD to bring it there. The different is huge! I changed 2,000,000 VND at local money changer for RM420.00. But when I changed it there, it was 19,000 VND for 1USD. So for 2,000,000 VND was only 105.26 USD which was equal to RM336.80! (1 USD= 3.20RM)

* Tips 2 - Cu Chi Tunnel Tour can be booked at Shin Tourist Corp at De Tham Street at Pham Ngu Lao, backpacker place. About RM 35.00 for bus and entrance fee. The hotel can also do the booking for you, if 25 USD per person is not a problem to you.

Mui Ne coming up next...

Munich Gastro Bierhaus @ IOI Puchong

2010-08-21T21:34:00.009+08:00

This was recommended by a friend and we had the opportunity to check them out one weekend. Munich Gastro Bierhaus is just located at IOI Boulevard Puchong (if you wonder where the hell is the boulevard, just opposite the Jusco/IOI Mall)

They also have "alfresco" dining but the boulevard is actually a covered one. So don't have to worry about rain and sun. But it could be quite warm on the sunny day.

So we chose to dine inside... it's a small place but cozy. When we reached there at 7 p.m, most of the tables have been taken up and we had to settle with a small table. It could be uncomfortable when you have more than 2 persons dining together.

The menu... quite a comprehensive one for German beers and foods.

Franzi Dunkel 1 pint @RM28.00 - Quite pricey but at least you get the chance to try the German Beer.

Pork Knuckle @ RM43.90 - You don't go to German restaurant and not ordering their pork knuckle! So we ordered ours... it was huge! The above photo didn't really do the justice about its size. Well, it was at least a foot long! The skin was damn crispy while the meat was tender. Trust me you could go no wrong with this one. I actually saw the table next to us, a family of 3 ( parents and a daughter) that ordered 2 pork knuckles and plate of pasta. Either the pork knuckle was so damn good or they had already starved for a period of time... either way I had to salute them!

Pork Ribs with BBQ sauce @ RM23.90 - Came in 4 pcs of ribs, which was just nice for 4 of us to share. It was quite good and worth a try.

Lamb Cutlet @ RM39.90 - Came in 4 pcs also... but smaller piece. It tasted quite OK but the price was a bit on the high side for its size and portion.

The total bill came to RM149.25 inclusive of 10% service charge. Overall I would say it was reasonable and definitely worth a come back. However my only complaint would be their small table. We literally had to swallow our food ( a bit exaggerated though) so that the plate could be cleared before the next dish came. This made our dining experience less enjoyable. From the time we ordered our food and paid the bill was less than an hour... It's good when you are in a rush but it was not in the case here.

Munich Gastro Bierhaus

C-GF-46, IOI Boulevard

Jalan Kenari 5

Bandar Puchong Jaya

47170 Puchong

Siang Seafood Restoran @ Sogo

2010-06-22T17:56:00.008+08:00

The Dim Sum place that highly recommended by Mrs. Chialat...

Siang is located at the 6th floor of Sogo Shopping Mall... Tableware...The interior... spacious and comfy. The menu... price ranged from RM4.00-7.00.

The food that we ordered...

Mango and prawn wrapped in chrispy Vietnamese roulades... RM7.00Butter Yam Custard Bun... RM6.00Crystal dumpling with chicken, duck and prawn filling... RM 6.50Steamed Siu Mai... RM6.50
Steamed Har Gau... RM7.00
Pan-Fried Bean Curd Roulade filled with Chesse... RM7.00 Tasty Minced Yam with diced yam in bowl... RM 6.00
Overall taste was quite OK. They are giving out 30% discounts on weekend and we only had to pay RM39.80 for the above food 2 weekends ago which inclusive tax and drinks.

New York New York Deli @ One Utama

2010-06-01T17:23:00.008+08:00

There were few times when we walked pass this restaurant, we saw some tables ordered foods that served in a big plate to share. It indeed looked mouthwatering to me and we decided to check them out last weekend.

Outside view of the restaurant...

The interior...

The menu... quite a comprehensive menu. Pasta, pizza, burger and etc are all available here. Price wise, I would say reasonable.

...and we ordered this. Super Sinful Meat Platter For 2...

Look at the BIG plate compared to the standard size dinner plate on the right hand corner.

The lamb was tender enough... but unfortunately too much fat.

The whole roasted spring chicken... tasted good with the BBQ sauce, albeit it was a bit too thick though.

The chicken cigars... crispy enough. They should have given ~~Wagyu~~ Beef instead of another chicken. Too much chicken!

The potato wedges... tasted quite good. It would be even better if they put some melted cheese on it.

The Large Ice Latte... RM 8.90. It was just latte, nothing more and nothing less but big enough for 2.

The overall experience was positive and I guess we would come back to try their other dishes as well.

Jin Taiwan@Puchong

2010-05-30T22:13:00.007+08:00

There was a write-up of Jin Taiwan on Sin Chew Daily a couple of weeks ago. When we saw that article, we immediately paid them a visit on that particular day itself. When we reached there around 2 p.m, the staff there informed us most of the items had been sold out. Damn... we thought that they must be good and decided to try our luck again the following weekend...

This time around we reached there around 12 p.m and it was almost empty.

The only other table besides us...

The menu...

The bubble tea was being served first... RM 3.90

The smelly tofu... RM 4.90. Quite smelly but Mrs. Chialat commented it was not good.

The salted chicken... RM 4.90. Tasted OK but the portion was damn small. Sorry to say but the above picture is quite misleading, it looks big but the actual size of the chicken is no bigger than the 20 cent coin.

The braised pork intestine... RM5.90. Thinly sliced/cut and could hardly fill up the gap between the teeth.

The Taiwan beef noodle... RM8.90. The texture of homemade noodle used was OK but the broth was a bit too sweet. I guess they put too much sugar!

Sliced beef... RM8.90. Small portion and damn expensive. Taste wise... just average.

If you happen to be in Puchong and don't know what else to eat, you may give them a try.

Jin Taiwan

70, Jalan Puteri 5/1

Bandar Puteri

47100 Puchong

Selangor

Tel : 03-8060 1051

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 6

2010-05-25T17:48:00.003+08:00

It was an early flight back to KL. Our flight departed at 11:10 a.m and so we had to check out at 9 a.m. The check-out was fast and the porter helped us flagged down a metered taxi.

The ride to the airport just took about 30 mins. It was a small airport and there was not so many international flight... So we had no problem of locating the AirAsia check-in counter immediately. We were lucky that we arrived a wee bit earlier than a group of Hong Leong's staff, of about 200 of them taking the same flight. Imaging if we were queuing behind them for the check-in... I'm sure it would take forever!

The airport and duty free shop had nothing much to see and most of time we just sat there and waiting for boarding.

When the boarding was called, we were the firsts to board as we purchased the hot seats earlier.

The flight back to KL was uneventful and we touched down at LCCT around 3:15 p.m.

Back To Day 1

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 5

2010-05-14T19:46:00.009+08:00

Today would be an easy going day...

The places in Yangshuo that we wanted to see and go had been covered. So it was time to head back to Guilin.

We woke up around 9 a.m and it was raining. The weather for the last few days was just fantastic- not a single drop of rain experienced. The rain here would be troublesome as it could rain days and nights non stop. So we did not intend to go out but just wait inside our room until the "auspicious" time to check out and leave Yangshuo.

At the stroke of 10:30 a.m we checked out. The check out was fast and at no time we were already outside the hotel waiting for a "taxi"(non metered private taxi). There were a few "taxi" waiting opposite the hotel and the bellboy helped us signaled one of them to come over. It was a small MPV and asked for RMB 25 for a 3-min-ride to the bus station. "WTF!"- but of course I didn't say out. Though pain was graciously felt below my belt ( being squeezed la), but with our heavy luggages and rain, I had no choice but to agree.

I had asked the receptionist earlier as how much would it cost for a taxi to Guilin. I was told that it cost RMB250 to RM300 for a private taxi.

Though I intend to take a taxi back to Guilin as it was raining at that moment. But somehow I would rather wait for the taxi driver to make the first move instead of me asking him first. This way I could definitely squeeze him back.

When we reached the bus station and about to get out from the car, the driver asked why not we used his service. He could give us a better price as his mini MPV was about time to do the routine service in Guilin. Instead of empty car to Guilin in another day or 2, he as well gave us a ride just to cover his petrol cost. He asked for RMB250 but finally we agreed on RMB190. If we were to take bus, the total cost would be around RMB100. Well, actually the difference was insignificant for an 1.5 hour comfort ride to Guilin.

Sheraton Guilin

This time around I didn't go back to Bravo Hotel but wanted to try out the Sheraton. It was nothing wrong with Bravo Hotel but I got a better rate to redeem the Starwood Points for Sheraton Guilin.

Sheraton Guilin was located at Binjiang Road and it was not difficult for us to find. We reached the hotel about 12 p.m. After paying the taxi driver we headed straight to the check-in counter while our luggages were taken care off by the porter.

I was informed the room was ready and as a member of SPG, we were assigned to SPG floor and given a king-bed room. The receptionist also brought out 3 items, a doll in local native costume, a piggy bank and a can of tea leaves. I thought all of them were for us but unfortunately she asked us to choose one and I chose tea leaves. Anyway it was a good gesture, don't you think so?

The washbasin and bathtub...

The shower...

The amenities...

The comfy pillows...

The comfy bed...

The coffee/tea maker and 2 complimentary bottles of mineral water...

The working desk...

The large LCD...

The hallway to our room...

The spacious interior...

The lobby...

The small garden in the middle of the hotel...

The shopping street behind the hotel... The location of the hotel was superb! It was a 2-mins walk to this shopping street where shops and foods aplenty.

The duck tongue... Mrs. Chialat's favorite. Sorry I had no idea how it tasted like as I didn't try it. We had our lunch at one of the restaurants at this shopping street. It was raining during lunch time and everybody was waiting in the restaurant and we had to share table. It was so crowded and I didn't want to take out my camera to shoot on my food like a stupid nerd, though the food was quite good. So no photo of our lunch!

After our lunch we just headed back to our room to check out the bed as it was drizzling non stop where we were not able to explore anymore. While we tried to take a nap, unfortunately we could here the noise from the construction site next to the hotel where it was quite annoying as they kept throwing steel rods from the top of the building. I made a call down to the receptionist to complain. The receptionist apologized profusely and asked us to wait for a while when she tried to assign another room for us. After 15 mins or so, the bellboy came with our new room card. The room was now located at the other end of the building. The room was same in size and design but came with a balcony. Sigh... it was raining non stop so the balcony was no use to us. Nevertheless it was now quieter than before and we managed to have our nap.

At dinner time we went back to the shopping street for our dinner. We ordered a farm chicken(frog) porridge 田鸡粥 and noodle. It was nothing extraordinary and I didn't bother to take any photo except this one - farm chicken porridge. Not that it tasted good but the way it was prepared... unlike our 田鸡粥 in Malaysia where the frog is skinned before cooking. Here they cook together with the skin!

The frog skin... how disgusting!

After the dinner we wandered around for a while at the shopping street. Since it was nothing much, we therefore headed to the night market. We spent a couple of hours there before going back to our hotel to pack for our early departure.

To Be Continued...

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 4

2010-05-10T18:17:00.011+08:00

We are going upstream today!

That was just to cover the part, from Xingping to Yangdi that we missed out when we took bus to Yangshuo instead of cruise the other day.

Click to enlarge. You would have better idea on where were the places we would be going today.

We woke up at 8 a.m and had a quick breakfast before heading to the bus station to catch a bus to Xingping- a small village located 25 km north of Yangshuo.

The bus station was just located next to West Street. We didn't have to purchase the bus ticket in advance. Buses departed from the station to Xingping was quite frequent... every half and hour or so. We didn't even have to buy the ticket at the counter. We just hopped on the bus, a 20-seater bus, and waited for about 10 mins before the bus started moving. Only then the lady bus conductor came over to collect money from us. We paid RMB 5.50 each.

Xingping...

The journey to Xinping just took about 45 mins. The whole journey was uneventful and soon when we got out from the bus, a few ladies rushed toward us to sell their rafting service. I already had an idea how much it would cost to do the rafting here when I spoke to our foot masseur last night. She said it cost them RMB200 when they did the rafting from Xingping to Yangdi a few months ago.

Though bamboo rafting was the only reason I came here but I did not show my desperation and managed to bargain down the price to RMB100 for 2 of us. Better than what the locals got! I guess it was mainly due to the low season.

*Bargain Tips - Do not show your desperation when bargain.

The lady led us to the raft by going through a small alley of the village...

Why must they sit so low to eat? Do you think it's more comfortable?

Quite a rundown village...

Empty street...

A few cafe/restaurants... according to the lady it was a happening place for backpackers during the peak season.

We walked pass some farm lands...

It took a good 20 mins walk to reach the riverbank...

We also had to walk on a short distance pebble path before reaching the raft... The raft was operated by the lady's husband.

The lady's husband was quite nice... he pointed out all the scenic sites and even lend us this RMB20 note for this picture. The actual scene on this RMB20 note.

They also have all kind of names for the hills/stones there. But I didn't bother as I couldn't figure out any single one of them.

The "Married Island"... there was a story about it also but I can't remember now.

Mrs. Chialat was showing off her seating pitch on her "first class" seat or her waterproof Croc??

Does it look like Kuan Yin- Goddess of Mercy?

The cruise boat that came down from Guilin...

Random shot...

Eagle Hill or something... can't remember.

Some hawker stalls along the river... should be prohibited as rubbish was thrown all over the riverbank.

Scenic view...

What a view!

After almost 2.5 hour ride, it was time to go "home".

When we reached the original place where we boarded the raft, we took a "tutu" back to the bus station instead of walking 2km. The bus was about to leave when we reached there and luckily we managed to get a seat as it was actually quite full. And again the journey back to Yangshuo was uneventful.

It was 1:30 p.m when we reached Yangshuo. We headed straight for our lunch.

Again we went to " Mei Jie" and ordered these...

Hot plate tofu... tasted good.

Veggie... quite nice.

Braised pork with yam... excellent!

The portion was quite big for all the above dishes and cost RMB64. After the lunch we headed back to our hotel for a rest.

We came out for our dinner at "Mui Jie" again which I forgot to take any pic. but I remember we ordered a Beer Fish and Stuffed Snail to go with porridge. It was quite good as well.

It was a final day in Yangshuo and we took a final stroll at West Street to see if we missed out something or wanted to buy anything before going back to our hotel.

To Be Continued...

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 3

2010-05-04T16:39:00.021+08:00

We booked 2 tours for today, Silver Cave and Li River Bamboo Rafting with the lady who maned the bicycle renting business in front of our hotel yesterday. We paid RMB 120 per person for the Siver Cave Tour which included the admission tickets while the bamboo rafting cost RMB 100 per raft which could actually accommodate 4 people. (Bargain please!)

When we came out from our hotel at 9 a.m, we saw this... quite foggy. It was not a good time to do the rafting as the visibility of Li River would be bad. So we decided to do the Silver Cave tour first.

We waited about 10 mins before a seven-seater van came and picked us up in front of our hotel. The van stopped at West Street to pick another 4 Chinese visitors before continuing our journey to the cave.

Silver Cave...

Silver cave is a splendid limestone cave that located about 25 km from Yangshuo County and it took about 40 mins drive from our hotel. The cave ran trough 12 mountains and the roundabout tour in the cave covered about 2 km.

The walkway leading to the inner part of the cave... although it was cold outside but the cave was actually quite warm where we had to take off our jackets.

Diamond-like stalactites highlighted with different color of lights that make it a dazzling place.

Water reflection shot...

Does it look like waterfall?

Crystal embedded stalactites that actually sparkle when highlighted with blue lights.

They have all sort names for the stones... example the one looked like monkey was named "Sun Wukong" (Monkey King- The monkey character in the Journey To The West novel) and so on. However I had problem of figuring it out, all of them, when the guide introduced except the one shown above.

One building after we exited the cave... we spent about an hour in the cave and once we exited, the van driver was already there, waiting. Soon after everybody was on board, the driver sped off. The journey back was uneventful and we were the first to be dropped off.

By the time we reached hotel, It was already 12:30 p.m. We wanted to go for lunch first before we continued the rafting tour. I just wanted to have a quick lunch near our hotel but the lady tour agent recommended we should try the home-cooked lunch at the farm house beside the Li River. We agreed and she immediately walked us down to the riverbank...

The raft handler whom was the brother-in-law of the lady agent was already waiting down there...

There we go... heading downstream. The first impression of the Li River was its water. The water was so clear that you could actually see the bottom of the river. If it was not winter and the water was not so cold, I would have jump into the river for a good swim.

We reached the farm house restaurant after riding about 20 mins or so...

The farm house restaurant...

When we walked up to the restaurant, it was rather empty and we were the only customers. It was a makeshift restaurants with "attap" roof that built in front of a wooden house. The restaurant just has 3 or 4 tables and no decoration.

The lady owner came to take order and we swiftly placed our order mainly based on her recommendation. She recommended the Li River fish soup, the farm chicken ( we ordered half chicken- min. order) and fried bitter gourd with beef.

The farm behind the restaurant...

Once finished with our order, the lady took a net and basket before walking down to the river. I thought she must be kidding... how long did she need to catch the fish?? Luckily she just walked to the riverbank and pulled out a cage from the water... though fishes were already caught earlier and placed inside the cage before customers ordered, but she still took a while, 20 mins or so to bring back the fishes...

We thought that it was a big fish but it turned out to be 10 or more small fishes like this... our raft handler help out with the cutting and cleaning.

The granny was chasing around before the chicken was caught... she started to boil water and the poor chicken was ready to be slaughtered.

It took about 2 hours (no kidding), from the moment we placed the order until this 1st dish being served. The fishes were cooked with plain water and maybe a pinch of salt. They said this was the best way to prepare the fish... I guess you would get the same "taste" with whatever fish you cook in this way. The broth was stinky for my liking and the fish was too small to appreciate its meat. I stopped drinking the soup after my first sip and hardly finished a single fish, neither did Mrs. Chialat.

The Kampung Chicken... this was quite good and we finished the whole thing.

The fried bitter gourd with "buffalo meat"... I'm not sure if it was beef or buffalo as the meat was damn chewy. We only managed to finish half of the bitter gourd while the beef was left untouched.

Guess what is it inside?

... our white rice. It was cooked with firewood and therefore it has a bit of burned taste. It took closed to 3 hours when we finished our meal there. The total bill came to RMB 120.00

The rafting tour continued after our lunch...

We reached our final destination, Fuli Village before heading back...

Fuli Village was like a ghost town... human beings were hardly seen here.

Broken house...

A rundown town...

Just a couple of stalls selling paintings and souvenirs...

Wood carving arts...

We spent 20 mins in Fuli before heading back...

Scenery on the way back...

Broken Boat...

It was almost "home" when we saw this structure... it was actually a bridge leading to the Liu San Jie Show.

It was 4:30 p.m when we reached the jetty. We bought some local fruits and dried persimmon at the jetty before going back to our hotel... It was just a 10 mins stroll.

We took some rest before coming out again... we were not particularly hungry as we had a long and late lunch earlier, but we definitely need a massage after a whole day of walking. We took a "tutu" to West Street and found a Spa center just where the "tutu" stopped. The Spa was quite "grand" and clean, therefore we decided to try their foot massage. The 2 hours foot massage came with 20 mins shoulder massage (quite good actually) that cost RMB 100 per person.

It was already 9:00 pm after the massage... and we headed straight for our dinner...

There were plenty of restaurants in West Street... but with our instinct, we chose "Mei Jie".

Their menu...

Pork Dish... it was quite good.

Duck dish... excellent!

Staffed Snail... local specialty in Yangshuo. Yangshuo was famous for 18 types of staffed food... and most of which were like our "Yong Tao Foo" - uninspiring. So we ordered the staffed snail.. and turned out to be quite good. You need a little bit of effort in sucking out the meat though.

Empty shell... We counted it has 28 snails in the dish.

All the above dishes were excellent especially when it went with porridge. All the portion was quite big and the total damage was RMB 64

Not sure if we were hungry but it was our best and most satisfactory meal in Yangshuo so far.

After our dinner we took a stroll at West Street for a while before heading back to our hotel and called it day.

To Be Continued...

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 2

2010-04-30T17:30:00.018+08:00

Today we woke up not particularly early... around 8:30pm. As buffet breakfast was included in the room rate, we went down for brekky soon after we were freshen up. The breakfast was quite good... everything you need for a breakfast! After we were fully stuffed, we went up to the room to pack and brought down our luggages. The check-out was fast as I had already made the full payment when I booked through Agoda. They didn't even ask for deposits when we checked in.

We took a cab (RMB 8) to Guilin Bus Terminal. The terminal was small and a bit run down. Eventhough there were some touts approaching me to sell their tickets, I didn't bother and just walked straight to the counter and bought my tickets there. The bus ticket to Yangshuo cost RMB 30/pax one way(non-stop). The ride took about one hour. We didn't have to wait long, 15 mins max, and the bus ready to leave.

Actually there was another way of going Yangshuo - By cruise. We didn't take this option because it was winter and the water of Li River became swallow. The upstream river was frozen up with lesser water flowing downstream. The cruise boat couldn't sail all the way down to Yangshuo but stop at Xingping and then have to take bus to Yangshuo. Though the scenic view from Guilin to Xinping was stunning but it was too troublesome for us with those luggages. Furthermore the cruise takes about 4-5 hours and cost RMB 288/pax! But don't worry, we would take another mode of transport- Bamboo Raft upstream from Xinping on another day. (will blog about that later)

We reached Yangshuo Bus Station around 12:30 pm. Soon after de-boarding the bus, a 3-seater-motored-tricycle (like the Bangkok tutu but smaller) driver offered to take us to our hotel for RMB 5. Without knowing how far our hotel was, we just hopped on. Damn it... actually it took 3 mins to reach our hotel- Tangrenjie Hotel.

This time around I booked the room with Ctrip as they have the cheapest rate, RMB 230/night without breakfast. One good thing about Ctrip is they don't take full payment nor deposits when we do the booking. We only pay when check in.

The room wasn't ready when we reached there. The receptionist gave us 2 vouchers for complimentary drinks at their cafe while waiting...

I ordered a local beer and Mrs. Chialat ordered a "Loh Hon Ko Leong Char" (Tea) while waiting...

Just half way through our drinks, the receptionist came and handed over our room's key. Then the porter was quick to carry our luggages and walk us up to our room...

Once everything was settled down, the porter asked if we would like to watch The Liu San Jie Impression Show and he could help us buy the ticket for RMB 120 each. The actual price was RMB 198 each.

This is the show you must not miss when you are in Yangshuo. It is performed by 500 singers and dancers on the theater that built on Li River. The show was created by Zhang Yimou, the famous Chinese movie director that directed the 2008 Beijing Olympic's open and closing ceremonies.

The show is performed everyday throughout the year and only close for 3 weeks in Winter. It was very unfortunate that my arrival in Yangshuo was 1 day after their winter break started.

I realized only after I booked my air ticket or else I would have booked the flight to come one day earlier.

I told the porter this but he seemed not to believe and made a few phone calls instead. But somehow at the end he just conceded and left.

View of the rooms from the pool side...

Our room... The bed was huge, must be the size of 2 queen size beds joined together. Though it was big but very uncomfortable... very hard. Just like sleeping on the concrete slab.

The bathtub...

The standard amenities and 2 bottle drinking water...

The toilet was clean...

~~Coffee~~ / Tea maker... no coffee, just tea!

We saw bicycle renting was available just outside our hotel and Mrs. Chialat suggested we rent ~~one~~ two to explore the place. We paid RMB 20 each for one day (24 hrs) and started riding to West Street.

Yangshuo is a small town in Guanxi Province with the population of 300,000 and The West Street is the only happening place in Yangshuo where we would be coming everyday for the next 3 days for our foods and shopping.

Endless stalls on the West Street and its surrounding area...

Shops at the front part of West Street... normally these are most expensive ones due to the high rental. So don't "gan cheong" (rush)... just walk to the end and you will get better bargain. They are selling the same thing all over.

*Bargain tips- don't "pai sei"(shy), just slash 80% from the asking price. If they say "No", just walk away. Don't worry, there are plenty of stalls selling the same damn thing along the way. If they really can't meet your price, you would probably get a bit of cursing from them while walking away. But if they ask you to come back to increase your price a little bit more, now you must firm with you original offering price. They would definitely agree to your price. Well, if they've agreed to your price and now you decide to ask for further discounts or walk away, I advise you better run!

Plenty of restaurants to suit your taste-buds.

More restaurants...

The only McDonald's... I wanted to try their burger but Mrs. Chialat preferred KFC. So we headed opposite for KFC. We ordered their Combo set - 3 pcs of chicken and 1 chicken wrap with a regular Pepsi cost RMB 40. Damn expensive and didn't taste good. So I didn't bother to take photo.

View from West Street.

The other end of West Street.

After we had enough with West Street, we headed back to the hotel for a rest. We came out again in the evening to make full use of the bicycle. We rode to the other end of town- or village to be exact.

Mrs. Chialat had to wait while I stop to shoot some picturesque sceneries.

The only bridge leading to other parts of the country.

The bare riverbed in winter...

The cruise boats had to dock at port because of swallow water.

What a view!

CLOSED! The entrance of the Liu San Jie Impression Show... It was actually not far from our hotel.

Reached one village and it was nothing much. So we decided to turn back and headed for our dinner as it was now almost 7 p.m.

Again we rode to West Street where most of the restaurants located. We took a stroll and finally settled with this one...

Small restaurant with a few tables...

We ordered these...

The Beer Fish... the specialty dish in Yangshuo. You can find almost very restaurants in Yangshuo sell this dish. The fish was fried before it was cooked with beer and green chili. The fish tasted like Cod fish and it had less bones. It was a little bit spicy but bearable. Overall it was excellent dish!

"Mui Choy Kao Yuk"... Tasted good also.

Fried Dumpling... their house specialty but it was just OK.

Fried Veggie... don't know what veggie was that but it was fresh and sweet. Even though it was fried with pork lard but it was not oily. Excellent!

The portion was quite big for all the dishes... no problem for 4 persons, but both of us still "sapu" up everything and also asked for a Yangzhou Fried Rice to go for tomorrow breakfast. The total bill came to RMB 120.

The West Street at night... we continued to walk a little while there before riding back to our hotel and call it a day.

To Be Continued...

Guilin and Yangshuo - Day 1

2010-04-29T10:22:00.025+08:00

This was my ~~recent~~ trip to Guilin and Yangshuo from January 17-22, 2010...

1st of all, thanks to AirAsia that make this trip possible. When they had the zero fare promotion, I fell into their "trap" again. This time I booked 2 destinations with them- Guilin (travel in Jan) and Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh ( travel in March). The return ticket inclusive of food- their famous Nasi Lemak, check-in luggage and hot seat was just RM219.00. What a deal for a 4 hour flight! Our taxi ride from home to LCCT, about 60 km, cost us RM85!

Check-in , immigration and boarding all of which were uneventful. Very soon the boarding was called and with our hot-seat-tickets, we were the first to board. I was grateful that I decided to add RM 25 one way for the hot seat when I did the OLCI. For the 4 hour flight with a couple of inches extra legroom, trust me, definitely worth it!

20 mins after we took off, I noticed that the plane was still flying low and not climbing to the cruising altitude. I thought something was not right and true enough, the captain came on PA saying that we would return to the ground. He said the compartment signal was on and he couldn't get it off. For precautionary reason, he would like the technicians to check first. I just hoped that we did not have to change aircraft as it would be wasting a lot of time. Fortunately we just spent 30 mins or so on the ground and very fast we took off again. This is the first time in all my flying experiences.

Except for that incident, the whole journey was uneventful and we arrived in Guilin one hour late. Once we cleared the immigration/custom, we took a metered taxi to our hotel. It was driven by a lady driver and she was quite friendly. The journey took 45 mins, longer than the usual 25 mins as certain part of the expressway was under construction- from 2 lanes reduced to single lane. It was also very unfortunate that we had to follow behind a three-wheeled vehicle with the speed of 40km/h or less for a good 20 mins. Anyway we arrived at our hotel around 12:30 p.m. The bellboy was fast to unload our luggage from the taxi and we headed straight to the reception for our check in after paying RMB 80 for the taxi fare.

The room was ready and the check-in was fast. We were told that we had been upgraded to a superior room. Bravo! I guess it was due to the low season. The room was on the top floor of the building with a balcony.

Outside view of the Guilin Bravo Hotel.
The lake view from our balcony.

The bed looks comfortable... but it was a tad too firm for my liking. The duvet was comfortable though.

No plasma nor LCD... but satellite channels were adequate.

Tea and coffee maker as well as 2 complimentary mineral water.

The toilet was clean...

Toilet amenities...

The hallway to our room...

After putting our luggage in our room, we headed straight out for lunch. Based on the recommendation from the receptionist, we walked about 300m from our hotel to this restaurant. It was full of local people and we couldn't get a table, so we had to sit facing the wall. Guilin is famous of their rice noodle and we ordered these...

The soup noodle... came with 2 quail eggs and few slices of pork. It was just OK, nothing to rave about.

The fried noodle... tasted funny and we couldn't finish it.

We ordered some side dishes... the "lap cheong" was disgusting. we couldn't finish the rest also. After the lunch we took a stroll to Guilin Lake...

One Chinese temple... but we didn't go in.

Cruising boat... but we didn't join the cruise tour.

The walkway next to the lake.

What a view!

The red bridge looks familiar to you?

Couple took their wedding photo... actually I saw quite a few.

Daytime view of the lake...

Night time view of the lake...

After a couple of hours at the lake, we were a bit tired as we woke up around 4 this morning, we decided to walk back to our hotel for a rest.

Don't you think the reflection is beautiful?

Soon after we had enough rest, we came out again searching for food. We took a 15 mins walk to the city center.

Night time at Guilin City...

Shopping Area...

Plenty of shops...

We chose this restaurant for our dinner... we could dine inside but prefer alfresco as the weather was just perfect- COLD! Along the way from our hotel, we kept buying and eating the local snack, so we were not particularly hungry and we just ordered these...

Steamed Soup... quite good.

The " Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun"... the skin was too thick but eatable.

The fish porridge... unlike the Hong Kong's one which was so smooth. This one too thick. The total bill came to RMB30

The night market at Zhong Shan Road... at least a kilometer long! We didn't buy anything though, as we had to travel to Yangshuo the next day and didn't want to travel heavy. We still had one more day to shop after coming back from Yangshuo... Well, save the best for last!

Beautiful huh?

To be continued...

2010-01-01T11:57:00.001+08:00

2010

Happy New Year!

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.9

2009-11-10T18:41:00.020+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.8

Final Day in Bangkok...

Our flight back to KUL was at 15:15p.m and that means we still had time in the morning to explore. So we decided to go to Amarin Plaza which was located at Racatdamri area ( near CentralWorld)...

Beautiful ceiling of Amarin Plaza...

Concourse area...

Amarin Plaza was a small shopping complex liked KL plaza which had nothing much to see. So we headed straight to its food court - The Cook, Kolors of Taste for our brunch.

The food court was relatively small compared to the MBK's one.

The food court was empty... as it was still early I guess.

Not much choices and I ordered a Fried Radish Cake - TB40. Dried and tasteless... lousier than the one sold in Pasar Malam!

Mrs. Chialat ordered a "Chap Fun" (mixed rice) - TB50. I tried a piece of the fish and it was spicy hot and dry.

After our brunch we decided to head back to our hotel to clean up/pack/rest before going to the airport.

BKK - KUL

Date: 14 October 2009 (Wednesday)

Airline: Air Asia

Aircraft: A320

Flight: AK743

Seat: 17C & 17D

ETD/ATD: 1515/1525

ETA/ATA: 1820/1830

Flight Time: 2 hours

At 1230 we checked out from our hotel. The check-out was fast. The porter immediately flagged down a taxi outside the street and helped us load our luggage into the trunk. In no time we were already in the taxi and there we were to the airport...

The traffic was slow in Sukhumvit area... maybe it was during lunch time and a bit of drizzling. At first I was a bit worried as we were still maneuvering at snail's pace in Sukhumvit area after 20 mins. Even though I had already done the OLCI the day before but we still needed to be at the airport 45 mins before departure or we would miss our flight.

Luckily when we were on the expressway, the traffic was smooth and the driver literally sped 120kph toward the airport...

After 25 mins or so, we reached BKK and we were left at the curbside.

While walking inside the terminal, we could see the arrival terminal below.

We headed straight to AirAsia check-in counter at row E...

And this is what we saw - sea of people, 20,000 of them!

AirAsia check-in counters... full of people! There were at least 15 people before us and we waited for a good 25 mins before our turn. Again, I told the agent I had done the OLCI and I just needed the boarding pass. It was no problem with that but when I put my check-in luggage on the scale, it showed - 16.3kg! Damn it...the agent had me removed something out from the luggage before tagging it. Luckily I just had to take out a laundry bag that was full of dirty clothes which we packed earlier in the hotel. Now the luggage just weighed 14.3kg!

Relatively empty at other check-in counters for other airlines.

After we collected our BP, we headed straight inside the departure terminal, but before that we had to go through the security. The security was tight and maybe I looked like terrorist, the agent asked me to take out my laptop from the laptop bag, camera and mobile phone to place in the basket to go through the scan. I also had to remove my belt and shoes before letting me through.

Statues inside the departure terminal.

The new airport/terminal was huge, spacious, airy and clean. I didn't know it had so many things to see or else we would have come here early. We just walked from one end to the other end of the terminal and along the way some shots were taken...

Palomar Cafe...

The food that we had earlier at Amarin Plaza was unsatisfactory and not filling. We decided to have something before boarding as we knew it was a no-frill flight that we would be taking later...

So we check out the Palomar Cafe...

It was a "alfresco" dining cafe right in the middle of the terminal...

We dined in front of their kitchen and we could see their chef in action...

Food menu...

Drink Menu...

My drink, Twister Pulp Orange Juice... TB60

Linguini Seafood Pasta... TB250

The spaghetti was perfectly cooked and the size of prawns and mussel was decent. It was quite delicious and the portion was huge.

Hawaiian Pizza... TB250

Look at the cheese... it just melts. They were generous with the cheese. It was damnnnnn delicious... one of the best pizza I have ever tasted.

After our meal, we literally ran to our boarding gate-F1, which was at the furthest right end of the terminal. I guess we were the last ones to enter the holding lounge. The holding lounge was small and not everyone could get a seat. Luckily we didn't have to wait long... the boarding was called soon after we enter the holding area. Surprisingly, this time around we didn't have to walk under scorching sun or bussed from the gate to board the plane. We just walked direct to the plane by using the jetbridge.

The push-back started at 1525.

Eva Air - B777

Thai Airways - B747

Finnair - MD 11

The "haram" airlines, Israeli Airlines - B747, which will never have the chance to fly into Malaysian airspace.

Lufthansa - B747 was taking off before us.

One last glance at the terminal whilst taxiing to the runway...

The crew started the safety demo as well while we were taxiing...

Today load I would say 70-80%.

The plane took off soon after we reached the runway and flew out to the Gulf of Thailand before entering the Malaysian airspace...

We were assigned to the pathetic seats of 17C & 17D... but we noticed the 2 exit rows were not taken( I guess nobody was willing to pay extra money for the extra 2-inch- pitch of this flight), so we gladly moved our assess to 12D & 12 E. It was actually quite comfortable in the sense that my knees didn't touch the seat in front.

I snoozed off soon after we settled down in our seat and the 2 hour-flight was uneventful. Once I woke up, the sky was getting darker and before long we started to descent and very soon we were safely home as well as our 4 days trip to Bangkok ended with good memory.

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.8

2009-11-02T19:27:00.025+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.9

MBK (Mah Boon Krong) + CentralWorld + Silom/Patpong... Shopping Day!

Our Skytrain ride at Asok BTS. It took about 15 mins to National Stadium Station where the MBK Center located...

MBK Center... It was once the biggest shopping mall in Asia when it was opened in 1985. The 8 stories mall has more than 2,000 shops and stalls!

From electronic items to fashions, from furnitures to leather goods, you name it, they have it. It is hard to tell what they don't have there.

All types of clothes... branded but faked.

When it came to lunch time, we headed to MBK Food Center, which was located at 5th floor.

What a huge food court! I guess it could accommodate at least 1000 people at any one time.

Food Stalls on my right...

And on my left... these only showed some of the stalls and not all. We were really spoiled for choice!

Before we started to order our foods, we had to buy this coupons...

I order a Kuey Chiap... 45TB. Plenty of "spare parts" but little kuey. It tasted OK but I still preferred Penang's Kuey Chiap.

Mrs. Chialat ordered a Beef Noodle...80TB ( keh liao one). It was very salty where Mrs. Chialat had to add a glass of hot plain water to dilute it... Somehow I found it still didn't taste good with or without the additional water.

Pork Leg Rice... 45TB. It was quite good. The meat was tender and tasty. The "kiam Chai" was just "kiam chai" - nothing special.

Excellent Dessert Bar...

Beans and preserved fruits in hot syrup... 25TB.

Sticky rice with mangoes... 70TB. Quite good but expensive compared to the roadside stalls.

After the "pit stop", we continued to walk up and down...

When we got tired, we started to look for a place to rest... and we found that the food center was still the best place to rest.

While we were "resting" at the food center, we realized that we still had some unfinished "works" to do... so we ordered these...

Shark Fin Soup... 150TB. The portion was enough for 2 persons.

Lots of shark fins... tasted not bad but not great either.

Coconut Cracker... 10TB/pc. The plain coconut one was O.K but the cream one was too rich for me... couldn't even finish the whole piece.

The Bird Nest Soup... 80TB. Nothing special!

That was too colorful for me to try...

The newly opened cafe in the food center...

Ice Latte... 45TB after the 10TB discounts. It tasted like the Starbucks' one if it was not better.

CentralWorld... The largest lifestyle shopping complex.

After we had done with MBK, we continued our " exploration" to Central World which we took the 5 mins-skytrain-ride to Chit Lom station where the CentralWorld located.

CentralWorld is the 2nd largest shopping mall complex in S.E. Asia. The complex includes hotel, office tower and shopping mall.

Some random shots of the shopping mall...

The busy Ratchadamri Road...

I have no idea what was so special about this store for me to take a pix...

The Erawan Shrine beside the Chit Lom BTS station... quite famous in Bangkok.

Well, we didn't stay long in CentralWorld... not because there was nothing much to see or do but unfortunately we were just too tired, too tired to move anymore. We found our legs became numb after a few hours of torturing walks. We decided to head back to our hotel to rest and took an hour foot massage after that. The massage parlor was the one we went for our Thai body massage yesterday... the foot massage was quite good also - 250TB for 1 hour session.

Patpong/Silom Red Light District...

At first I wasn't sure if we should visit Patpong (the most famous red light district in Bangkok) especially when Mrs. Chialat was around. But as the saying goes - "no visit to Bangkok is complete without a night at Patpong", so I decided to bring her there to see how was the red light district liked in Bangkok...

We again took the Skytain from Asok Station to Silom Station which we had to change station at Siam Station in between. The ride took about 20 mins or so. After coming out from the station, we just walked 200 metre ahead and we found this...

Night market in between 2 rows of shops where many of which were Agogo Bars...

Sexy girls were standing outside the bars waving at you and I managed to "peep" inside where many girls clad only in bikini danced on the bar-top. Well, I was a little bit "paiseh" to take photo of them. So I just took photos of the stalls.

There were many touts that kept persuading us to watch the Thai Girls Show (not tiger OK) or Ping Pong Show( not the actual sport game OK) inside which we only had to pay for the beer that cost 100TB. But we didn't go in. I knew that with Mrs. Chialat around, it won't be fun going in. There was one tout that actually held my arm and followed me for a while to keep persuading me... If it was not ~~Mrs. Chialat who followed behind~~ my strong determination, that fella would have successfully "dragged" me in.

With my sheer determination, we headed straight to this roadside alfresco-dining "restaurant"...

With a bar counter as well...

Just a few tables being set up...

SPY sparkling wine... 90TB with nuts.

Cute little ketchup & chili sauce...

Skewed Pork & Beef kebab... 50TB each. Excellent!

Seafood Fried Rice...150TB. Expensive and lousy!

Pad Thai... 150TB. Expensive and tasteless!

Starbucks in Thai decor...

When we left Patpong at 10:30 p.m, we noticed that more stalls were just started to set up along the roadside, selling all sort of things. I guess it would be more "happening" when it gets late into the night at Patpong.

This time we took the subway(just below the Silom Skytrain Station) back to Sukhumvit which we didn't have to change station.

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.7

2009-10-27T18:34:00.038+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.8, P.9

Golden Mount Temple + Wat Pho + ~~Traditional Thai Massage at Wat Pho~~ + Dinner at Suan-Lum Night Bazaar...

Soon after our lunch at Supatra River House, we took a 3 mins-boat ride to Tien Pier from Maharaj Pier. Wat Pho was about 200m ahead after coming out from the pier. Unfortunately when we reached the gate, we found the gate was closed. There was a guy, believed to be a tout, said Wat Pho was closed for the day. He offered to bring us to some other nearby temples by "tuk-tuk". But we declined. We were unperturbed and kept on walking to see if there was another entrance to Wat Pho...

While walking, a guy stopped us and asked if we were going to Wat Pho. He said Wat Pho was closed for "private ceremony" for the king ( I guess it was due to the King's deteriorating health condition). He showed us his ID and said that he worked as a plain-clothes policeman at Wat Pho. He said Wat Pho will be reopen at 4:30 p.m and he suggested, instead of us waiting here, we should visit the nearby Golden Buddha, Golden Mount and Export Market as it was now only 3:30pm. He also suggested we used the public "tuk-tuk" as it was only 4OTB to these 3 places and the "tuk-tuk" would wait for us before bringing us back to Wat Pho.

The tuk-tuk first brought us to the Golden Buddha (or fondly called Lucky Buddha)... a very small shrine! It was nothing interesting so no pix on that. We left after we made our offerings to the Buddha and asked to strike TOTO the following weekend... obviously that never happened.

The tuk-tuk then brought us to the Sam Peng Export Market... At first we thought it was like a wholesale market that we could source the local produce there, but to our disappointment, it was a small jewelry shop! Well, it looked more like a pawn shop to me! Jewelry was not our cup of tea so we just walked out... and on our way out, a guy there asked if we would like to make suits as the 2nd floor of the building was a tailor shop. But we were not keen either, so we left the place almost immediately.

We asked the tuk-tuk to bring us straight to The Golden Mount...

The Golden Mount...

The Golden Mount is part of the Wat Saket Temple located just outside the old royal city precincts, next to Pom Mahakhan Fort. From the ground, a wide stairway spiraled up and around the side of the mount. There were about 300 very small steps in all. Though the slope was quite gentle and there were numerous spots to stop and see something, but it was still a strenuous climb for both of us. If it was not me who kept on persuading, Mrs. Chialat would have given up half way.

Our first stop...

Big Bells along the stairway...

Wat Saket...

Lotus for the offering...

Once we reached the rooftop terrace, we had a stunning view of Bangkok - 360 degree...

East?

West?

South?

North?

We had a good 45 mins up there and the cool breeze that really kept us from leaving the place. But we had to...

Once we reached the bottom of the mount, where our tuk-tuk supposed to be waiting for us, was not there... Damn! It was our mistake for not telling him how long we would be up there. I thought that he must have some "urgent business" to attend before coming back to pick us up... but after 10 mins or so, there was still no sign of him. The other tuk-tuk came over to tell us our tuk-tuk guy was not coming back as he was going to the Export Market to collect his 200TB commission for bringing us there just now. Damn it!

The other tuk-tuk offered to take us back to Wat Pho for 80TB but I managed to bargain down to 50TB... Luckily I didn't pay the first guy in advance!

Wat Pho...

About 15 mins or so, we were back to Wat Pho. The gate was now opened... we bought 2 admission tickets for 40TB and wanted to book a session of Thai Massage but was told that due to the ceremony, the massage was not available today.

Wat Pho is famous as Thailand's 1st university and center for traditional Thai Massage. Damn! How could one miss?!

The entrance/Exit...

Back of Buddha's head and pillow...

The famous Reclining Buddha of Wat Pho...

Buddha's Toes...

The symbols on the soles of the Buddha's feet were inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl... but what is mother of pearl?

To put coins/notes in each of every one of these bronze bowls will bring you luck... altogether 108 of them.

Walkway inside the temple... beautiful painting on the wall and decorated pillars...

Fierce looking statues guarding the gate...

The four Phra Maha Chedi of Wat Pho were dedicated to the first four kings of Chakri Dynasty.

After half an hour in Wat Pho, we decided to leave and by now we were extremely tired... We took the boat ride back to Central Pier...

...And taking train at Saphan Taksin BTS station back to our hotel for a good rest before coming out for dinner. Most of their BTS stations were not equipped with escalator and walking up and down of those stairs were killing me!

Suan Lum Night Bazaar...

After a day of walking, climbing and temple-ing, we were very much deserved a good body massage, so we walked across the street from our hotel to indulge in an hour Thai Massage session before heading out for dinner.

Surprisingly, after the pulling, stretching and twisting(but no hanky-panky), we felt "relief" and "light" again. So we decided to go to Suan-Lum Night Bazaar...

We took the subway from Sukhumvit Station to Lumpini Station. Once heading out from the station, we saw this...

rows of shops...

Shops in the narrow alley...

But our main priority now was... FOOD!

We decided on this restaurant because... it was "brightly" lit, I guessed.

They were doing a brisk business...

Menu was handed out to us and the waitress took our drinks order first.

Here came our "drinks" (more like a dessert to me)...

Ruby Water Chestnut with Coconut Milk -45TB... The "ruby" was spongy and the coconut milk was not too sweet. It tasted quite good!

Shit... can't remember what it's called. But plenty of ginkgo and coconut fresh served with coconut milk - 45TB as well. Too sweet for my liking.

Nobody came to take our food order even we had long finished our "drink". We decided to ask for our bill and left...

We just walked next door to this makeshift restaurant...

Full of people also... but our food didn't take long to come...

Young Coconut. - 40TB

Seafood Fried Rice - 80TB. Not bad but not great either.

Fried Noodle... but where was the noodle? The noodle(hor fun) was so little that it was fully covered by the veggie. - 75TB. Tasted lousy!

The Grilled Squid... quite bland and chewy. 200TB was not worth it!

Last but not least, Tom Yam Kung again... It tasted quite good! -140TB.

After the meal, we started to explore the place but unfortunately we were too tired and didn't stay long. We finally had to retreat and find our way "home".

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.6

2009-10-24T19:29:00.033+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.7, P.8, P.9

Grand Palace + Vimanmek Mansion + Lunch at Supatra River House...

Grand Palace is a must visit place when you come to Bangkok. Otherwise it is like going to Beijing without visiting Forbidden City or London without visiting Buckingham Palace.

The Grand Palace complex was established in 1782 and it houses not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the renowned Temple of The Emerald Buddha.

Aerial view - Just look at the sheer size of the palace. It covers an area of 218,000 square metres and surrounded by four walls -1900 metres in length.

When our cruise boat docked at Maharaj Pier, we disembarked...

Ana - our guide, waited at the pier to lead us to the van which would bring us to the Grand Palace. There were about 10 other people, all of whom were kwai lou, had also bought the "hop on and hop off" cruise ticket, took turn to board the van. We let them board first... and Ana saw that the van was getting full, she asked both of us to join her to the other van... To our surprise, instead of just a free shuttle service, Ana became our personal guide for the next 4 four hours.

This was the van that shuttled just the 2 of us to Grand Palace and Vimanmek Mansion before returning to Maharaj Pier. The van was quite new and comfortable. We managed to attract some envy eyes of others, as they may think that we were some VIPs who had a personal guide to show us around as well as a nice van with driver that always waited for us after each visit.

Mrs. Chialat preferred to sit in front for the reason she best known to herself.

Less then 5 mins ride from the pier, we reached at the palace's gate and there was a strict dress code for visiting Grand Palace - Men must wear long pants and shirt with sleeve. No tank tops and no bare feet(must have socks). Women must be modestly dressed as well. No bikini, no see-through clothes and no bare ~~breast~~ shoulder. if you show up at the front gate improperly dressed, here is the booth near the entrance that can provide you clothes to cover you up properly. You must leave your passport or credit card as security.

Nice building at the entrance...

After we bought 2 admission tickets for 350TB each that included the admission tickets to Vimanmek mansion which could be used later, we headed straight to the gate...

Phra Siratana Chedi.

When she heard that it was made of real gold, she tried to dig it out...

Phra Mondop.

Giant Yaksa Guardians

The Golden Chedis.

Kinnara, Wat Phra Keo.

Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn, The Royal Pantheon.

The Upper Terrace.

The Roof of The Temple of Emerald Buddha.

The Temple of Emerald Buddha. Camera was prohibited inside the temple... so no photo of the Emerald Buddha.

Beautiful decorated pillar of Temple of Emerald Buddha.

Decorated roof.

The Gallery - The wall of which contains painting depicting the epic of the Ramakien.

The Borom Phiman Mansion.

The Chakri Maha Prasat.

Beautiful garden and landscaping.

Beautiful architectural structure of the Chakri Maha Prasat.

Elephants guarding the Chakri Maha Prasat.

Beautiful structure.

The Dusit Maha Prasat.

Beautiful??

The Goverment Office in The Palace.

Change of guards... some tall, some short, some fast, some slow, some thin, some... well, all of them were thin. They should have been sent to China for training!

The Phimanchaisri Gate - It was the end of our tour of Grand Palace after exiting this gate.

The wall that surrounded the palace and the landscape outside the temple.

The view outside the temple.

Ok, this is not the gate outside the Grand Palace but the gate of our Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur. After visiting Bangkok's Grand Palace, I feel ashamed of our Istana Negara where it does not have "history" to tell nor it is "grand" enough to brag about. But I'm quite puzzled every time when I see bus load of tourists stop outside the gate to take picture with the 2 horses. Well, after all I'm not suggesting our government to build one "mega and grandest palace" to compete, but our government really needs to put in some efforts to attract tourists. We are loosing out to our neighbour in term of tourism industry!

Amanda Samakhom Throne Hall... Ana said that she could have brought us there after the Grand Palace but unfortunately it was closed on that day.

The Vimanmek Mansion - The World's Largest Golden Teakwood Mansion.

We spent almost 2 and a half hours in Grand Palace before our next destination- Vimanmek. Once we came out from the palace, Ana made a phone call to the driver to come and pick us up. The van could not park near the Palace but we did not have to wait long. The van came in 5 mins.

The ride to Vimanmek took about 20 mins...

The beautiful mansion was built by King Rama V in 1897. The security was tight and camera was not allowed. So, this is the only pic. of Vimanmek. We had to leave our camera, phone and backpack in the locker as well as taking off our shoes before entering the mansion. It took about half an hour "manouvering" inside the mansion and Ana explained every attractions in detail to us. If you don't have a personal guide like ours, don't worry, they are conducting guided tour every half an hour.

After Vimanmek, Ana said as the government sponsored the shuttle van for us during this low season, in return the government hoped that we could support their local industry by visiting one of their factories. So she brought us to visit the 2nd biggest jewelry factory in Bangkok (or in Thailand, I forgot) - Chin Jewelry Co. We were offered welcome drinks on our arrival and I asked for coke. The factory was not that big as claimed nor impressive enough compared to the one in Phuket. So we just spent less than 3 mins inside the factory.

While we came out, the driver was nowhere to be seen and Ana phoned him. He was having lunch! He thought that we could have spent some times inside the factory to choose our jewellery. I felt bad as I guessed he must have washed down his food with water as he came back pretty quick - 5 mins max!

It was already 2:30 p.m and we felt hungry as well... I asked Ana to recommend nice Thai food restaurant and she recommended the one next to the Maharaj Pier. We invited her to join us for lunch but she politely declined. For her professional and impeccable service, I tipped her 200TB when we got back to the pier... and 40TB for the driver (of course he didn't see how much I tipped her). Both of them thanked us profusely.

Supatra River House Restaurant next to Maharaj Pier.

The restaurant is under the group of S&P, which also operates many other chained restaurants in Thailand.

4 books of menu to choose...

And we ordered these...

Ice Black Coffee - 50TB... normal and nothing special.

Ice Milk Tea - 55TB... I still prefer our Teh Tarik.

Seafood Tong Yam Kung - 155TB... It was extremely delicious. Not too sourly and not too spicy hot. Excellent dish!

1 huge prawn sliced into 2 that found in the soup. The prawn was fresh and "firm". The other ingredients were the standard squid, fish, mushroom, tomatoes and etc. But the prawn was still the star of this dish.

Thai Seafood Fried Rice -95TB... The portion was just enough for one person but damn delicious. One huge mussel "hide" underneath the rice!

The special sauce for the fried rice... hot and spicy. The fried rice was already tasted good enough so I didn't need this.

Fried Pork Knuckle - 275TB... It was perfectly fried. The skin was damn crispy whilst the meat inside was still juicy and tender. It was served with mustard but I preferred to go with Thai chili sauce. The portion was huge.

Chicken Green Curry -115TB... The chicken was tender and the taste of the green curry was just right as the spices did not overpower the taste of curry. Somehow I felt it was a tad too salty but when it went with white rice (all the dishes were so appetizing that I actually asked for additional white rice to go with it - 15TB for a small serving), it tasted quite OK.

Eventhough they served quite a variety of cakes but we just didn't have enough "room" for anymore dessert.

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.5

2009-10-21T18:29:00.015+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.6, P.7, P.8, P.9

Chao Phraya River Cruise...

2nd day in Bangkok - The itinerary for the day would be the Chao Phraya River Cruise + Grand Palace + Temples' visit. We woke up at 8:30 a.m and got ourselves ready in an hour time before heading out for breakfast. The hotel rate that we paid did not include breakfast... and we didn't wanna to upset our stomach with too much Thai food at this hour, therefore we walked to McDonald's at Robinson which was 200 metre away from our hotel for McBreakfast.

I had a Sausage McMuffin's Set (81TB) that came with coffee and hash brown. Mrs. Chialat ordered Set 1 which she thought was Filet-O-Fish from the picture but when it came... alas it was just McEgg's Set (69TB).

After the quick breakfast we took Skytrain from Asok Station to Saphan Taksin Station which took about 30 mins or so. After exiting from the train at Saphan Taksin, we walked down the stairs and headed to the Central Pier.

At the pier, there were many touts would keep persuading you to choose their service to cruise the river. But we chose Chao Phraya Tourist Boat Company as they were the only operator there that had proper booth, proper brochure and more importantly proper boat to ply the river.

The Chao Phraya Tourist Boat provides service to 9 piers, which in turn give access to Bangkok's most famous attractions. The journey starts from the Central Pier and proceeds up to the river, stopping at 8 other piers and returns back to Central Pier on the same route. You can get on and off at any pier to explore the beauty of sites in the surrounding areas.

We paid 150TB per person for the cruise and due to the low season (until end of Oct), they would provide free ride for passengers with van to Grand Palace and Vimanmek from Maharaj Pier.

Here came our boat...

Went to the front of the boat to take some shots before it left the pier.

Once everybody had boarded...

The guide came on PA to greet the passengers and explained the safety procedure but no safety demo liked the one done by stewardess on plane. He also pointed out the landmarks/ attractions along the river and at every pier. But unfortunately I couldn't quite get to what he was saying due to the noise and also his English in Thai slang.

Nice boat...

And nicer one...

Some buildings...

Taksin Bridge....

Memorial Bridge...

Wat Kanlayanamit...

Houses at the riverbank....

Wichaiya Prasit Fortress...

Royal Thai Navy Headquarters...

Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)...

3 stooges with their "sampang"...

Wat Rakhang...

Oriental Pier...

Houses at the riverbank...

Did he not scare the dirty water hit his face??

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.4

2009-10-20T17:15:00.022+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.8, P.9

Food Court in Siam Paragon...

After our "walk" at Chatuchak, we felt the needs to take shower before heading for dinner as we were ~~very~~ a bit smelly due to the constant flow of sweat during the walk. So we hopped on the train and back we were to the hotel. Once inside the room, we blasted the air-con to the max and took our shower. After the shower we just lied on the bed and watched TV as it was still early (6pm) to go out for dinner. It was so comfortable especially with the cool air blowing out from the air-con and without realizing, we snoozed off. By the time we woke up, it was already 8:30pm...

We didn't wanna go far, so we just walked along the Sukhumvit Road to see if we could get something to bite... but after 20 mins of hunting, the hawkers' food didn't seem to be appetizing and the many fast food outlets didn't seem to be interesting... so we took the Skytrain to Siam Paragon which was 3 stations away from Asok BTS.

When we reached Siam Paragon, it was already 9 p.m and we just went straight to the food court which was at LG.

Siam Paragon serves as its slogan " The Pride of Bangkok" goes, The 1st mega shopping complex in Thailand. It houses various world-class international brands - a truly shopping paradise for brand name lovers. Oh-ya, 21-screen cineplexes as well.

But today we only had the chance to check out their food court and nothing else...

Choices aplenty and food ordering was a breeze... maybe it was already late (9 p.m+). But first we had to buy some "credits" from the cashier. A card would be issued to you for the value that you want and only then you can start ordering your food from the stall. The stall will deduct the amount from the card for the food you order. After your meal, if the credit is not used up, just go to the cashier to cash out.

The drinks counter...

We were not particularly hungry due to the "heavy consumption" at Chatuchak, so we ordered these...

The beef noodle... the beef was a bit chewy but the broth was OK. The noodle was springy and the portion was just right for 70TB

The Thai version of Char Kuey Teow - Pad Thai. It was delicious! 70TB for Prawn Pad Thai and basic pad Thai was 60TB.

After the meal, we found that many shops had closed but somehow we managed to have a " peep" on many of the luxury cars on displayed at the level where many high-end car companies set up their showroom at.

Pride of Proton... Lotus that owned by Proton which will be participating in next year's F1.

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.3

2009-10-18T20:26:00.024+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.8, P.9

Chatuchak Weekend Market...

It was already 2pm (local time) after we successfully checked into our hotel and felt hungry. Without wasting anymore time, we headed straight to Asok BTS Skytrain Station to take the train to Chatuchak - exit the Mo Chit Station, walk down from the right-hand stairs, follow the crowds for a 3-mins-walk and there you are...

Chatuchak is the largest market in Thailand and also in the world that opens only on weekends. It covers over 35 acres of land and with 0ver 5,000 stalls selling a wide variety of products including household items, clothing, Thai handicrafts, collectibles, pets, foods and etc.

Some random shots...

Furniture and lighting products...

Gardening products...

But what interests us the most now would be - food! Just outside the market we saw quite a few stalls selling some Thai food and we decided to give them a try...

Looks liked Curry Mee but tasted like "Lemak Asam Laksa". The rice noodle was quite springy. Actually it was quite basic and the portion was small but it tasted quite good - 1 boiled egg and 2 meat balls were given - 30TB!

But somehow there were plenty of free raw veggies on every table for you to add - taugeh, kiam chai, cabbage, cucumber and... shit don't know what green leaf was that.

After the noodle we still felt hungry (mind you we only had big pao in the morning and nothing else and now was already 3pm local time and 4pm Malaysian), we saw this stall quite attractive as the staff they "displayed" caught our attention - stewed pork leg! So needless to say, we had to check them out!

Chili padi, fish sauce and... shit don't know what was that, but it looked like "mini" garlic on every table.

Don't worry if you don't know Thai, the menu is in English....

Mrs. Chialat saw the pork leg and could not resist the temptation, so she ordered pork noodle. But when this bowl of noodle came... where was the pork?? We asked the waitress twice was it pork noodle and the answer was an affirmative - "yes". Well, their pork noodle was just a few pork balls came with noodle. Anyway it tasted OK. -45TB

I ordered a duck noodle. Thanks god, it was real duck meat! The broth was same as the pork noodle's one. I like their noodle's texture - springy enough! - 45TB.

I added some chili flakes into the soup and it tasted real good.

Coconut... an excellent choice of drink during hot day. We ordered the roasted one... 30TB and quite sweet. Walked further down, 25TB for one. Damn it!

If you cannot get enough of coconut, you should try this - coconut ice cream.

The ice cream was served in the coconut shell together with some young coconut flesh.

25TB for a pop which you can also add some toppings. It tasted quite good! Oh ya, they also provided plastic cup which we could drink the coconut juice for free after the ice cream and we drank some.

Fried "sotong" egg... high cholesterol and we didn't try.

Fried quail eggs... which we didn't try as well.

Conclusion: quite an interesting place to visit when you are in Bangkok.

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.2

2009-10-16T20:17:00.026+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.8, P.9

Hotel...

After coming out from the airport, we walked straight to the taxi stand and told the agent that we were going to Sukhumvit. A voucher (no need to pay until you reach your destination) was given and then the driver carried our luggage to his taxi. He sped off soon after we boarded the taxi and heading straight to our hotel. It took about 25 mins to reach Sukhumvit but the driver never heard of our hotel - Sacha's Uno. Luckily he knew the road-Soi 19 where the hotel was located and I had no problem of pointing out the hotel to him once we reached Soi 19.

The taxi fare from airport to Sukhumvit cost 420TB inclusive of 50TB for airport taxi tax and 70TB for the toll.

I chose this small boutique hotel due to its great location and good reviews from Tripadvisor and Agoda. I made the booking last month through Agoda and paid USD39/night for a standard room.

When we reached the hotel, our room was not ready yet. We had to wait for 15 mins before the key was handed to us and being told that we were given free upgrade to a superior room. The porter carried our luggage to next door building and up to our room at 4th floor. The hotel consists of 2 buildings and our room was at the next building.

Our superior room... no carpet but timber flooring. Very clean and the king size bed was extremely comfortable and the fluffy pillow was at its right height. The bed was very much liked the Westin's heavenly bed... it was actually very difficult to drag ourselves up every morning! And most importantly the air-con was excellent-very cold!

The room was equipped with a 32" LCD, 85 cable channels, safety box ( big enough to put my laptop in) and 2 bathrobes in the closet which we never used. No hair dryer in the drawer and we called the housekeeping to request one as well as 2 additional pillows on top of 4 pillows already placed on the bed. No problem, they were delivered to our room in less than 2 mins!

The bathroom was clean but small.

No bathtub but rain shower... the water pressure was OK and no problem with water temperature.

The plus point... free high speed wifi was available in the room! Speed was faster than my Streamyx at home!

Coffee/Tea making facility.

2 Complimentary bottles of mineral water everyday...

Day time view of the hotel... the complimentary "tuk-tuk" outside was actually used to send guests to BTS station or Sukhumvit subway station. We used only once as it was drizzling on one morning.

Night time view of the hotel...

View from the Asok BTS station. The Asok BTS Sky Train Station and Sukhumvit Subway Stations were just a 2 mins walk from our hotel. Very convenient, fast and cheap in getting around in Bangkok.

The Uno Mondo was located at the lobby. The pretty barista was busy making aromatic coffee. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to try her out... I mean the coffee OK!

The lounge at building#2

The lobby is at building #1

Guests are free to used the 2 PC terminals..

The staff were excellent... open the door for us every time we walked in or out of the hotel. Never fail to greet " sawadeekap" and wearing a smile all the time.

The Lounge at building #1

Travel tip: 7-11 is just right opposite which you can buy ~~beer~~ drinks to stock up your fridge in your room. The massage parlor with green sign was good and clean - 1 hour Thai Massage was 300TB. Robinson Departmental Store is 1 min walk from the hotel. Sukhumvit is buzzing at night with lots of stalls and plenty of eateries.

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1

2009-10-14T23:34:00.035+08:00

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.7, P.8, P.9

Sawadeekap...

My last visit to Bangkok was years ago... even before their International Airport at Don Muang was shifted to Suvarnabhumi in 2006. Few months back when the world's best low-cost airlines (Skytrax said so)- Air Asia had the zero fair promotion, I managed to grab 2 return tickets for RM300, flying from KUL - BKK in October.

KUL - BKK

Date: 11 October 2009 (Sunday)

Airline: Air Asia

Aircraft: A320

Flight: FD 03572

Seat: 11E & 11F

ETD/ATD: 1040/1045

ETA/ATA: 1140/1215

Flight Time: 2 hours

I did the OLCI the day before so that we just needed to be at the airport 45mins before the departure time. The OLCI was easy and we were automatically being assigned to seat 11E & 11F. We woke up at 0730 and thought that we still had plenty of times as we asked the taxi to come at 0830... but I received a call from the guy at 0815 saying he was now outside our home. So I basically washed down my breakfast (big pao) with coffee and rushed out. We finally left home at 0830.

We reached LCCT at 0920. It took slightly longer than the usual 40 mins as it was raining heavily. The new extended terminal for international flight was now in operation. It was spacious and airy compared to the previous small and stuffy departure terminal. It looked rather empty on the above pic due to the spaciousness of the terminal. 3 check-in counters were opened for this flight and each line had about 3-4 people. We waited for about 10 mins before our turn and I told the agent I had already done the OLCI but without printing out the boarding pass. The agent said no problem and straight away issued 2 receipt type of BP and tagging my single piece of check-in luggage. The whole process took less than 2 mins!

More shops are now available in the terminal.

Now they have more security check points and went through the security was a breeze.

More gates now and our boarding gate was T4.

Now everyone can sit... finding a seat last time was a difficult job.

Bigger duty free shop...

Empty Godiva chocolate shelves...

Our A320 was ready for boarding...

The rain stopped when boarding was called...

I would say the load for today was 70-80%. The door lock was secured after everybody had boarded. The push back started soon after and the crew swung into the safety demo. The plane took off at 1045.

The 29" seating pitch was pathetic for a 5'11" guy...

The seat reclining button was damaged and made it even worse... I had to sit 90 degree throughout the 2 hour flight! Reading newspaper was impossible as it almost stuck to my face when the front passenger reclined her seat!

The flight was smooth when we reached the cruising altitude of 35000 ft.

The rest of the flight was uneventful but when the plane started to descent and fly through some thick rain clouds 25 mins before landing, it became very choppy. Mrs. Chialat was holding her breath whilst the airsickness bag was in her hand ready for the "action". But somehow she managed to swallow back.

Overflew some agriculture land of Bangkok before landing.

Touched down at 1215 and Sunvarnabhumi Airport was now visible. The ~~cheapskate~~ low-cost airline did not pay for using the jet bridge and therefore we had to be transferred by buses to the terminal.

Walking towards the immigration...
2 huge statues greeting arriving guests...

Went through the H1N1 scanning area was no issue but going through the immigration was slow as the "uncle" immigration officer was taking his own sweet time to stamp each passport.

Once the immigration was cleared and luggage was collected, we rushed to one floor below to take taxi to our hotel.

To Be Continued...

POPEYE the sailor man

2009-10-10T09:53:00.017+08:00

At first I thought "POPEYES" was named after the cartoon character of Popeye the sailor man, which I was quite puzzled as I didn't know Popeye loved fried chicken. I thought Popeye loved only spinach!

Well, this Popeyes Chicken & Seafood Restaurant was actually named after the character of Popeye Doyle in the movie "The French Connection". The first outlet was opened in 1972 in Louisiana and since then they have been operating more than 2500 outlets throughout the world.

The first outlet opened not long ago in Malaysia (IIRC) was in TTDI and now the second one a couple of months back in Mid Valley.

Recently I had a chance to check them out at this Mid Valley's outlet for my lunch. They are located at lower level and opposite McDonald's. The place was rather "cram" during lunch hour.

I ordered a 2 piece spicy chicken set...

It was very crispy and the spicy one was not so spicy after all... but it was just right. Not oily as well. I prefer their spicy chicken over KFC spicy chicken. For the original one, KFC will still be my choice albeit a bit oily. The meat was tender and juicy. The size of their chicken was bigger compared to KFC's one.

The coleslaw tasted OK only. The mash potato, I'd say better than the KFC's one where the gravy didn't taste like pepper after all.

The 2-piece chicken set inclusive of coleslaw, mash potato, a piece of "biscuit"(the biscuit was soft but tasted OK. It was more liked a scone to me than biscuit), and soft drink is only RM9.90 nett. (no tax)

Fried chicken without this is just not right!

Grill King Hainan Western

2009-10-07T10:58:00.006+08:00

The other half used to brag how good was the western food being served in this restaurant in Puchong which she kept coaxing me into trying them out. So one ~~fine~~ rainy day I decided to check them out.

The place was dimmed with purplish lighting where it was difficult to produce good quality image with my camera.

The place was rather empty when we arrived. Don't know if it was due to the heavy rain.

They offered quite a comprehensive menu with reasonable pricing... you can find Asian noodles, pasta, fried rice and western food. Not sure if it was opened by Hainanese (The word-"Hainan" was on their signboard though) but I was quite puzzled and doubted as I didn't know Hainanese was good in Italian food as well.

Anyway we were reluctant to check out their Italian food but we ordered these...

Alfonso Chicken... The grilled chicken was tender enough and the mango sauce was special but it was a tad too sweet for my liking. The presentation was lousy as only raw veggie ( or salad in nicer term) was placed underneath the chicken. The portion was small. -RM10.90+

Yakitori Pork... It was delicious and I would have no problem in taking 10 sticks myself alone but RM6.00 for 3 sticks that really set me back.

Sirloin Steak... The steak was overcooked and it became a bit "rubberish" and tasteless. The fried rice and veggie were OK. The size of the ~~rubber~~ steak was small.-RM11.90+

Grill King Hainan Western

19-1 & 21-1, Jalan Kenari 19A

Bandar Puchong Jaya

47100 Selangor

Tel : 603-8076 2578

Restoran Tak Fok@Puchong

2009-09-11T23:00:00.010+08:00

Sorry folks, OK I know it has been quite a while since my last posting... Well, it was also that long I last had a decent meal. OK,OK, I know it was a lame excuse but what to do? When I had something nice that deserved to blog about but alas... forgot to bring out my camera, when I had the camera with me all the time, the food was damn lousy to talk about.

Anyway many weekends ago and when it came to dinner time, we were just out of "inspiration"! Didn't wanna travel far and we ended up at this RestoranTak Fok in Puchong.

Basically it was the banner that caught our attention where they were having some promotions on crab-RM20-22/kg. Who could resist right?

So we ordered...

Salted Egg Crab... The size of this crab was smaller compared to the one that we usually had but it tasted quite OK. For the price of RM22.00/kg, I won't complain.

Cheesy Crab... RM20.00/kg which you can avoid by all means. It was not creamy enough and most importantly it didn't give us that kind of "kick".

Kong Poh Mantis Prawn... It tasted OK only and the portion was quite small for the price of RM18.00.

Fried Lala with Dried Shrimp and Chili Padi... It was OK but not something extraordinary-RM16.00

Seafood Tofu Pot... RM20.00 not so impressive. All cheap ingredients!

Well... another unsatisfying meal but it still cost RM117.92 inclusive of tax for 5 adults with drinks and nuts.

Restaurant Tak Fok H.K Seafood

No.23, Jalan Puteri 2/5

47100 Puchong

Selangor

Tel : 03-80606994

Puchong Yong Tau Fu

2009-08-10T17:46:00.007+08:00

If anyone tells you the best Yong Tau Fu in town is in Ampang, very likely he/she has yet to try this Puchong Yong Tau Fu.

At about 6:30pm, it was already full of people...
Choose your fresh ingredients...
And the ladies will help you stuffed it with fish paste...
They will then fry it and cook the soup.
Their special dip sauce was excellent.

Even though it was full of people but our food arrived in just 20 mins. Last time it took at least 45 mins! I like the soup where they put plenty of leafy veggie (I don't know what it's called but it is normally used in Pan Mee). The fish paste was tender and succulent. It was only RM1.00 a pc and I'd say it was reasonable as the size was quite big.

The fried ones... the fried "fu chuk" which you must not miss. Damn crispy!

They open for lunch and dinner... but I prefer to go there in the evening as the place can be very hot during day time. It's always full of people during weekends. So just go early!

Puchong Yong Tau Fu

Kampung Batu 14 Puchong

47100 Puchong.

*If I'm not mistaken, they are just opposite the Han Min School.

Hokkien Mee@Damansara

2009-07-23T17:47:00.005+08:00

If we would make this far to this part of the town in the evening, the chicken chop at Stenven's Western Corner usually would be the purpose of our visit. But today I couldn't quite reach a consensus with my other half to savour my favorite chicken chop there... and finally we agreed to explore something new.

This restaurant was one of the 2 Hokkien Mee restaurants located at the same row, but few shoplots apart, that we noticed, which successfully drew quite an impressive crowds every time we passed by after our meal at Steven's Western Corner. We decided to check them out today. We chose this one was mainly because we managed to get a parking space right in front of this restaurant.

The signboard basically shows what they have to offer and their business hour...

And we ordered these...

Hokkien Mee... the KL's version and not the typical Penang Hokkien Mee. The ingredients was rather limited... a few thinly sliced pork meat and 2 or 3 pcs of ~~dried~~ shrimps ( about the size of a dried shrimp) given. The taste was just the usual taste of a Hokkien Mee which you can get everywhere. Single portion was RM 6.00.

Yee Fu Mee... same mediocre and limited ingredients given. The taste... well, the other half managed to have just 2 mouthfuls of it and I had to forcibly swallow all (as I don't like to waste my food) which ended up without remembering how it tasted like. The single portion was RM 6.00 as well.

It was just 6:30pm and already full of people which puzzled me until today that what actually attracted the crowds to the restaurant.

They are located same row as HSBC at Uptown Damansara but further down towards the end of the road.