Bangkok Day 2: Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, The Grand Palace, The Fabulous Bar & Dessert Cafe and Khao San Night Market

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Hello chewy chewy friends! Very good right? I didn’t make you all wait long long for my second BKK post! 😛 If you have not read our BKK Day 1 post, it’s here! Soooo.. We were quite disciplined and woke up early enough to settle for breakfast at the hotel. Looking to save money of your accommodation? There are great deals on the Expedia hotels page.

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The buffet breakfast spread was alright, nothing to shout about. While we were seated, we looked around and noticed that there were quite a number of Singaporean youngsters like us. Hoho.

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I didn’t really think much about the food. Can’t believe misterchewy went for a second helping! Hahaha.

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Our plan after breakfast was just to visit one tourist attraction which is The Grand Palace. The moment our cab driver knew we were tourists who were interested in more than just eating and shopping, he offered to ferry us around and take us to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Temple of the Reclining Buddha in addition to The Grand Palace for just 1000baht (SGD40) excluding ticket admission charges. We felt that it was quite a good deal considering that at least we would have something to keep ourselves occupied with for about 5 hours.

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Little did we know that Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is located damn far away from our starting point, about 100km southwest of Bangkok. It took us more than 2 hours to get there! If I were a kid, I would be like, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?!?!” Hahaha you get the drift. And to our horror, the admission cost us 1500baht per person, which means we paid a freaking SGD120 for the two of us to sit on the wooden boat for two hours!

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The only consolation was probably that we had the boat (I’m so inclined to call it ‘sampan’) all to ourselves and it was sheltered. But then again, it made taking photos kinda difficult.

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Some people call this the James Bond Floating Market, since some scenes from the The Man with the Golden Gun was shot there and subsequently released in 1974. Another 2008 crime thriller film, Bangkok Dangerous, starring Nicholas Cage, was also filmed there.

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And trust me, it was a nightmare whenever the boatman stopped the boat in front of these merchants because their prices are marked up really high and they would try to sell you every single thing that they could. What’s even funnier is that we didn’t express interest in those things that they were selling in the first place and they kept asking us to name our price. Like wth?! In the end we bought some cutesy elephant pouches for my colleagues there and then just to shut them up. LOL.

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We also spotted a few of them selling fruits, drinks, noodles and other snacks but the boatman didn’t even slow down 🙁

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Part of the boat ride included stopping by the souvenir shop for about 10 minutes. I was actually quite reluctant to get off the boat because I was so afraid that I would slip and fall into the water.

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Nothing worth buying here!

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We were like O_O when we saw these! I mean, what are these doing here?! LOLOLOL.

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Hahaha. Told misterchewy to pose for a photo and he did! And the shades on the statue didn’t belong to us :S

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This, on the other hand, looked pretty cool. I could have bought something here but the boatman didn’t stop.

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This old granny looked quite cute sitting there so I hurriedly snapped a photo. Hahaha.

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Ummmmm.. No comments.

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And then, we stopped by a temple. So cool right! There’s a temple within the floating market! Yeah, had to get off the boat again.

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Fish feeding time! Fish food cost 10baht. I got tired of watching misterchewy throw the food in small quantities and told him, “Aiyo like that feed until tomorrow also cannot feed finish one leh. Just dump the entire pack la” and he did. LOL. -.-

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The rest of the boat tour was uneventful. Even the boatman knew that there was nothing interesting for us to see, and he sped up for the last 10 minutes.

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Let me tell you that our visit to The Grand Palace was pretty much a nerve wrecking one. They stop selling admission tickets at 3.30pm and when we reached at 3.25pm, there was already a queue. We were all advised to return another day. Both of us were like.. Whuttttttt.

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And so we walked back dejectedly to our cab driver who had parked his car some distance away from The Grand Palace and told him what was being said to us. He actually ran in and came out with tickets and said we could pay him afterwards! We had to loan proper attire because no shorts and sleeveless clothing were allowed. Mehhhhhh.

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I think misterchewy looked quite cute in these pants or whatever you call it. As for me, I was quite pissed with what the Thai auntie picked out for me but I couldn’t take my own sweet time to choose since we were already running out of time. The husband kept offering to help me take photos but I refused because my attire was really quite chui! Walking fashion disaster I tell you! D:

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My mood was kinda ruined because of the fugly outfit plus we didnt have much time to tour The Grand Palace. Yeah despite that, I still tried taking some photos here and there. Trust me, when I’m in a bad mood, I refuse to do anything one. LOL.

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This photo was taken by misterchewy! I can’t master this! Arghhhhh..

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TADAH! I know you guys must be wondering how AWESOME my outfit was. LOL! Towards the end of the tour, I told misterchewy, “Help me take a photo.” He thought he heard me wrong because I was quite adamant initially about having my photo being taken in this horrendous attire. “Don’t take my face la. Just take my back, I pretend I taking photos with iPhone.” Very awful combination right?! Wah lao very malu, face don’t know where to hide liao. T_T

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Our final stop was supposed to be at The Temple of Reclining Buddha but we were exhausted. More importantly, we were feeling ravenous! So we told the cab driver to take us to The Fabulous Bar & Dessert Cafe. Decided to tip him nicely too since he really went all out to help us.

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This cafe turned out to be a pretty hip and nice place to chill out at! We made ourselves comfortable while poring through the menu, which only consists of desserts and drinks.

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Basically we want everything when it comes to desserts and sweet treats! But of course we have to be realistic. Lol. We narrowed it down to just two desserts and two cocktails! 😛

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The Fabulous Signature didn’t exactly blow us away but one good thing was that the cake was not cloyingly sweet.

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The hubby has had a weakness for molten lava cakes for the longest time! Naturally, he was the one who had his eye on the Chocolate Satin, which I felt was yummier than the cake. Just imagine creamy rich chocolate oozing out from a warm cakey crust.

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My Bangkok Delight and misterchewy’s Single Lady. LOL.

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The Fabulous Bar & Dessert Cafe is quite strategically located along Khao San road, where the entire street comes alive at night.

Address: The Fabulous Bar & Dessert Cafe @ 32 Jakkapong Road. Taladyod Phranakom, Bangkok 10200.
Tel: +66 2 6291144

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Ehhhhhhhhh sexay laday ohohohohoh oppa gangnam style! See what I mean?

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Khao San Night Market is really very happening!

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We saw this auntie selling Phad Thai! There was a queue and we decided to join it. Must be delicious! We couldn’t resist the aroma too.

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Eating Phad Thai by the streets and downing Singha beer! Best! Oh and one plate costs a mere SGD2.

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I think we covered most of Khao San Night Market and took a tuk tuk back to our hotel.

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Upon seeing that there’s another night market right outside our hotel, we decided to shop around some more!

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It had been a really loooong day for us but it was fruitful, that’s for sure! Our next post will mainly feature our experience at one of Bangkok’s fine dining establishments that offers a spectacular view of the city, so look out for it! 😉

Bangkok Day 1: Erawan Shrine, Chu Chocolate Bar & Cafe and Once Upon A Time

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Greetings chewy chewy friends! Yes I’m finally blogging about our Bangkok 4D3N trip! We were there from 12th to 15th October, a few days after our wedding photoshoot. I had been really looking forward to this short getaway because I can finally indulge in whatever I wanted to eat and drink temporarily! Not that I was on a crazy diet before the photoshoot.. I still ate practically everything I craved for, but in moderation 🙂 Anyway, it’s too much to squeeze everything into one blog post so I will be splitting them into 4 separate posts which will basically cover our activities from Day 1 to Day 4 😀

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We reached Bangkok in the morning and as it was still early for us to check into our room, we left our luggage at the hotel and carried out our plans without wasting time!

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We walked about 15 to 20 minutes from our hotel to Erawan Shrine that is in front of Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, near Chit Lom BTS station. Despite the hot weather and sweltering heat, many devotees could be seen at the shrine.

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Address: Erawan Shrine @ Thanon Ratchadamri, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Opening Hours: 06:00-24:00

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And it was time to find something to eat! Good thing misterchewy had also done a bit of his own research and suggested going to Chu Chocolate Bar and Cafe for our very first meal in Bangkok. The food isn’t Thai cuisine to begin with but it is opened by a local, Toey Na Ranong who is also the chef.

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Chu is highly accessible by BTS, just have to alight at Asoke station and it is connected to Exchange Tower on the second floor, where Chu is. Very convenient!

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I had a Hazelnut Cream Soda (100 baht) while misterchewy chose the Vanilla Cream Soda (100 baht).

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Even though we were famished, we decided to share only the Lemon Curd Pancakes (190 baht) because we wanted to save stomach space for dinner. The pancakes were so fluffy and delicious that we were kinda tempted to order another item from the menu to try out!

Address: Chu Chocolate Bar & Cafe @ 2nd Floor Exchange Tower (Asoke Intersection), Bangkok, Thailand 10110
Tel: +66 (0)2 663 4554
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 07:30-21:30 and Saturday – Sunday: 09:00-21:00

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We shopped for a couple of hours at Platinum Mall before heading to Swensen’s for a short break because our legs were protesting already. Haha.

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Does our Swensen’s have Snic-a-Choc sundae? I only recall seeing Frosted Chocolate Malt, Sticky Chewy Chocolate etc!

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It was both our first time sitting on a tuk tuk and we were quite excited! But we weren’t aware of the market rate and the driver ketok-ed us. We only found out from a taxi driver the following day that the average rate from Platinum to our hotel is about 50 baht but the driver quoted 150 baht.

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We didn’t want to splurge on accommodation and my colleague recommended Baiyoke Boutique Hotel which really was good enough for us. When we got off the plane in the morning, we took the railway from Suvarnabhumi International Airport which is very convenient and the trip took only about 30 minutes. Baiyoke is about 5 minutes walking distance from Ratchaprarop railway station if you take the shortcut 😛 We checked into our room, which was clean and cosy, and took a short rest before heading out for dinner.

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Our dinner place, Once Upon A Time, was also suggested by misterchewy and the restaurant’s name sounded appealing enough!

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We walked from our hotel and I was quite amazed that misterchewy knows his directions quite well! Both our last time to BKK was with our parents when we were still kids. Of course, he navigated using his iPad but he only had to check a couple of times and knew which way to go.

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Alfresco dining looks very romantic right! But it was too dark and we were afraid of being bitten by mosquitoes so we chose to sit indoors.

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It is actually darker than what you see in the photos. I actually had to bump up the ISO to get decent shots of the interior.

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Look at the amount of food! I think we kinda over-ordered for two. Hohoho! Good thing the food was lip smacking and we licked our plates clean.

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We called for the bill and it was presented in a huge wooden box. Total bill was 1600 baht, which is roughly the equivalent of SGD $64 for the above 4 dishes, rice and 2 bottles of beer. Definitely not our cheapest meal in Bangkok and not our priciest either 😛

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Once Upon A Time was previously occupied by the owners and is now converted to a restaurant on the ground floor but the bedrooms on the second floor are open to visitors for photo-taking purposes.

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Address: 32, soi Petchaburi 17 (opposite Phantip Plaza) Petchaburi Road, Pratunam, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: 0-2252-8629, Mobile: 0-1833-8336
Opening Hours: Daily from 11am until 12am.

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Didn’t wanna tire ourselves out on the first day and decided to return to our hotel for a good night’s rest.

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Our room was cosy and clean, and had practically everything we needed except for toothbrush and toothpaste. Good thing we realized earlier in the day and stopped by a convenience store on the way back after dinner. Our next BKK post will feature a couple of sightseeing places that we went to. Till then, take care and have a great week, chewy chewy friends! 🙂

Address: Baiyoke Boutique Hotel @ 120/359 Ratchaprarop Road (Behind Baiyoke Sky Hotel), Rajthevee, Pratunam, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: (+66)2 251 8800-1, 2251 8255-58