zenn bites...

i'm back from my whirlwind trip to bangkok!

feng, ian, hock, ang, loon, kristina, samantha and i turned bangcockians over the weekend and immersed ourselves in all things thai.

friday
i took leave from work (woohoo!) but still had to begin the day early, picking xiang up and going off to collect prizes for my golf event, before going wakeboarding!!! ahhh...it left me sun-tanned and achy and my head was wonging badly for a long while after i took a horrid spill.

headeggy, drowsy from all that sun and having a hacking cough, i headed to din tai fung (yumyum) for a late lunch with xiang and tristan before i accompanied xiang to a fitting at newurbanmale. oh man, the trunks and tight tight singlet they made him wear was HOU GAY WOR!!!!!!

i got reacquainted with my cute num guy, jason (he's straight! i think...haha) hehhehheh


reached the airport at 7.10pm and we had our last singapore meal at popeye (long queue, dry chicken strips, funny muntou).

we started our bangkok escapade feeling really special, after an airasia ground crew looked down her long nose at us and greeted us with a "you are the last passengers" at the boarding gate (not our fault the bloody gate so far away ok!). and being the special last passengers, we had to search for individual pockets in the rather full plane to sit our asses on. none of us got to sit with each other, which means i had no one's hands to hold when the rattly airasia plane made a loud, swervy touch down.

a sleepy taxi ride later, we walked into the newly-furbished, brightly-lit reno hotel which was to be our home for the weekend. located along a rather dodgy alleyway called soi kasem son (don't know if that's the right spelling but it sounds like "soy sauce, car, sam and son"), reno hotel surprised me with their nice new lobby, seeing that we're only paying SGD38 for 2 nights' stay. the rooms upstairs were quite old school and dormitory-like, but the sheets were clean, the aircon worked and i didn't encounter any ghostly visions.

there wasn't a telly in the room, but at least we had a bbc programme guide to keep us in the loop of what's going on in the satellite world.

we ventured to suan-lum night bazaar in the dead of the night (it was already around 0030hrs) to find everything closed. but we had a yummy, albeit very spicy, meal at relax - an upstairs cafe place that stayed open later just so we wouldn't die of hunger (thanks to ian's er...charms).

i think the staff took revenge by making our food extra spicy though - hock almost died.

saturday
the next morning saw us having our complimentary breakfast at reno cafe. breakfast set b, which consists of fried egg with sausage, 2 slices of toast, fruit and coffee/tea looked partly like this:

that sausage's about the size of my index finger. i don't know why they need such a big plate. 'tis gourmet indeed!

we took a train to chatuchak, where we all got lost in the massive maze of shops. we haggled and bought, walked and shopped, and got all sweaty and dirty.

a syndicate of screwed-up ugly old men pick-pocketed minmin as we were making our way back to the meeting point to gather with the rest of the gang. my poor darling got her baht and phone stolen and, when she realized it, she cried out "i've been robbed" in a very surreal, dramamama moment. it was like the sea of people parted and left her standing in the middle of a circle of sandy ground.

fucking thai syndicates!!! but nevermind kz babe, you bought loads and now you get to buy nice new phone (that you will hopefully be more fated with).

we traipsed through the city of (dusty) angels in the late afternoon, and spent 2 hours (and what must have been 5km on foot) searching for healthland (spa place!). very adventure, very tiring.

we definitely earned the foot massages we got when we finally found the place.

all nice and relaxed, we cramped into a tuktuk (4 per trip) and risked our lives to get to suan-lum for a huge seafood dinner. the bangkok traffic is scary - drivers cutting lanes without checking blind-spot, lanes that make it seem like you're driving into incoming traffic, drivers that boh hue the directional signs at all, etc. like hock said, the signs (and red lights) are just suggestions... =/

i managed to get more of my fisherman pants and did some shopping at the night bazaar before we headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.

sunday
as usual, the girls (and ang) were the first to be ready for the day's activities. after another broken-heart-cucumber breakfast at reno cafe, we headed back to healthland for our 10.30am massage sessions!!!

ang, loon and i changed into fisherman pants and funny hospital-like tops with 5 ribbons for our traditional thai massage, while the rest went for their aromatherapy massage. (piggy ian stayed in the hotel and slept the morning away).

the thai massage made me drowsy, and wasn't really as strenuous as i'd thought it would be. the masseuse didn't exactly bend me or sit on me alot, but it was just what i needed after friday's wakeboarding.

lunch was at mk steamboat (where they had the most diluted green tea i've ever drank). thereafter, we split up and feng, ang, hock and i went shopping around siam square. more bargaining (though not as shiok as at chatuchak) and more spending before we went back to the hotel to begin our journey home.

the kind reno hotel staff left a lasting impression and ensured themselvs of our return when they helped us get a van and we had a hassle-free ride to the airport. of all things, our last meal at bangkok was burger king. but i guess singapore bk doesn't have chicken strips so that's ok. (chicken strips, again, i see a pattern here. chicken strips is THE food to eat before you get on a plane).

the tiger air flight back was so much more pleasant (even though there was more turbulence). we had a nice, new plane and an atas angmoh pilot. one complain though: the seat - the headrest bit should never curve and make me have to lean my head forward all the time. it's super uncomfortable.

all in all, a great weekend getaway. i am damn tired now, especially since i came into the office at 9am this morning to prep for a big 10.30am meeting. can die. i need to shui jiao!

photos are mostly with loon and hock so i'll put them up later. (and no, the photo of the food is not the only photo i took on the trip). heh.