5th day in CM - raining morning

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain, wonder where we should go next?

Our last day here, will be taking a night bus to bkk tonight. 10hrs journey. Need to look for an inflatable pillow as my last one has started flacking.

Maybe, should just go to a shopping mall today and nua the day away..

Updates..

That was exactly what we did. We took a song tiew to Central Airport Plaza which cost us 30bht each. Waited outside till 11am for security to open the doors, went to their food market for lunch. I ordered some guo tiao soup look-alike to discover that its actually chicken blood soup. Yucks!! But it actually is super yummy. I mean the soup and guo tiao. I couldnt bring myself to eat the chicken blood so i gave it to the nice lady beside me. The bowl of noodles only cost me 25bht. Sigh. How i miss prices like these.

With a full stomach, we went shopping. We bought a couple of bottles of nail polish, several bras, hand cream and what not. At 5pm, we left the mall and head towards nowhere but Fah Lanna!!!! This time, its only 1hr of foot massage as we are short of time. My warm, fleshy, gentle hands was busy again (*sob*) so i was given a lady. I think i still prefer a man. When we were about to leave, the manager knowing that it was our last few hours, came out and gave us some packages of their specialty ginger tea! It is such a simple and sweet gesture. Seriously, they do not have to do it but they did.

We rush back to The Green Tulip, stuffed all our purchases into whatever space we can find, took a quick shower and off to the bus terminal for our 8.30pm overnight bus. I felt the seats are kinda small as i'm used to those 18 seaters instead of 24 seaters bus but netherless, it was still a very smooth and quick ride. The part i enjoyed most is during our toilet break at 2 in the morning where they served plain porridge with salted egg, salted ikan bilies and preserved veggis. A very simple meal yet filled us up completely. YUM YUM!

We arrived at BKK bus terminal at 5am, got into a cab (100bht) and reached Take A Nap (http://www.takeanaphotel.com/) at around 6am. Checked in and i slept till 8am in the lobby. We walked out and towards the back lane of the hotel and this was what we saw.

Interesting. Maybe someday, with more courage and a bigger crowd of friends, i might enter one of them.

We found starbucks and i know i need a large latte to survive this day. I had that and breakfast.



Sit and chat and people watch till about 9am, went back, checked into our room, freshen up and went to chachuchap market. Spent about 250sgd. We were there till 5pm, had another cup of latte then taxi to my Peking Duck for dinner.
We shared one whole duck between the 2 of us. I felt so sick that i wanted to vomit out what i'd eaten. Reckon i wont be having any duck cravings for a long time. Went to Naraya which is just next door then to Citibank for withdrawal. 5000bht each.

Cab back to our accommodation, put down our bags then went to Suan Lam Night Bazaars. Sadly, many of the shops has become empty gaps in between other shops. Only the souvenirs shops are left, those arty shops are all gone. It took us just 1hr to get tired of it and went for food massage (I missed Fah Lanna!) We trained back, which is just a stop away, packed our stuff and i KOed.

Last day in Thai
Woke up at 9plus in the morning, changed and left for Platinum mall. We stopped at Isetan to buy my Rose Tea essential oil and ended up with another 3 bottles or EO. This whole trip, i bought close to 10bottles of EO and 9 bottles of nail polishes. Thats where all my money went.

We ended up having brunch at the jap market on the 5th floor of Isetan. Den went to search my polaroid film but found them to be more expensive than in Singapore so went to Platinum Mall for shopping. By 4pm, i'd spend all my money and dragging my tired feet,all i could do was to follow Erica around while she spend her last 500bht.

As there was still time, we walked back to our accomodation which took us around 30mins along Henry Dunant Road. Packed and at 7.20pm, board our cab and reach the airport at 8pm. Checked in, went to buy a cup of cha nom and a cup of green milk tea at the food market then went in. We THOUGHT there was still time to shop around and spend too much time at the essential oil area. My god! Second time i need to run to the boarding gates in BKK airport. Why does it have to happen? I seriously hope this is the last time!

Touch down SG at 12.30am (possibly due to us, the plane arrived later than schedule.. hehhe..) mum and dad came to fetch me and i reached home at 2am.

Upon arriving, the pilot thru the PA system said something like this '... and to the Singaporeans, Welcome Home!..' All i could think of was 'rubbing salt onto my wounds!'

3rd day in Chiang Mai - Doi Suthep

Took a song-tiew up the mountain to Doi Suthep this morning to visit Wat Phrathat. The must go temple in CM. The weather was cooler up there. The ride up and down cost us 200bht each. If we were to take the song-tiew to CM zoo then to change to their public bus, it will cost us 150bht. So we pay an extra 50bht each to have our private driver.

In the temple, I see ppl even angmos asking for a lucky lot. so I tried too and this was what I got.

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As we walked out of the temple, we bought some meatballs, bbq corn, cooked coconut as well as cha nom to munch on. We found a flight of clean steps, sat there and people watch while we enjoy our tea break. It was a nice experience.

We head back to our hostel, recharged and walked our way to Fah Lanna. We sure were addicted. Today, we had a 2hrs massage instead of 1hr and by fate, i got my warm, fleshy, gentle hands again.

After which, dinner and shopping at the night market. Again. I wondered how can i squeeze all the purchases inside. Hence i started searching for a decent 55l backpack but non caught my eyes.

We stopped at Starbucks for a break and while resting, this man who was sitting in front of us, outside the shop, turn back and pointed towards the sign beside him 'Tarot Cards'. I signaled back 'How much?' and he mouthed '300bht',

Erica and i decided to give him a try and i went first.

He asked for my name then translate it to Thai and asked for my dob and calculated my age. Then he mumbled something in Thai. Asked me to place my hand on the cards and peace my mind for 2 seconds. After which, he spread the cards out and asked me to pick 10. I did and he lay them in sequence, looked at me and started analyzing.

He said i have kindness in my eyes, and i will have money according to my brows. He said i speaks the truth and honored my words. My lucky number is 3,8,9. I should only get married after 33yrs old. I need time to know if my boyfriend well enough to get married. My husband must respect me. 31yrs old will be a bad yr for me. Im born to be an employee but in my mid thirties, i can have my own business. But it should be a small/middle business, cannot be a large business. I must do something i like and i can only do this business with my family or good friends. He asked me to be careful of my signatures. He asked me not to tell my future husband how much money i have and to have my own savings. Never let my husband knows how much money i have. I should only have 1 or 2 children. Not more than that as it will be bad for my health. There's a 70% chance my guy will be someone with identical background/culture to me and 30% chance that hes a foreigner. He said that i can be a number 2 in work and when number 1 left, i will take over the position. He also emphasize that i'm easily cheated by man.

That was mine. Then Erica had hers.

We reach back at around 11pm, showered, i watched my hk drama on my htc and then went to bed.

4th day in CM
ET source for a Thai cooking class and as recommended by tripadvisors, decided on A Lot Of Thai (http://www.alotofthai.com/). The class started with a pick up in an antique baby blue Volkswagen which is ohsocool!!!

We were brought to our class which is the backyard of our teacher's house. It sure looks cosy. Yui is our cooking teacher and she started with my fav dish, Pad Thai followed by Stir fried chicken with cashew nut and green curry. Then she drove us to the nearby market and introduce some of the veggis to us.

We went back to her house at around 3pm and finished with tom yum gung, fried spring roll and mango sticky rice.

During the course of the lesson, we not only learnt how to cook the dishes, she also taught us some foundation to cooking. Like how to determine if the chilies is hot or HOT. 2 Chilies Padis can be hot and VERY HOT despite looking the same. She also taught us how to drain the oil off spring roll, how to deep fry the spring roll so it will be evenly cooked. In short, i learnt a lot from her.

Yui, not only taught us Thai cooking. I also learnt a lot off her. I could feel the love she has for her family, her gratitude towards the farmers, her respect for all the food she used as well as her appreciation towards the society.

I see her as a human (it might sound strange but many times, i'd met someone who behaves worst then an animal) with an extremely generous and loving soul, someone who has found what she wants in life and treasures what she has. She does not take things for granted and value what she has got. She managed to melt me and strangely, when she was talking about how she feel that small vendors should be supported, i felt my eyes getting moist. The kindness in her, its hard to ignore.

Hence, if anyone is to visit CM, go for her lesson. Speak to her. Listen to her. You might bring back home more than Tom yum gung recipe.

The lesson ended at 6pm and Yui, with her husband and daughter, drove all of us back to our hostel. We rest for a while and heads for where else but Fah Lanna. This time, we had a 2hrs massage and a 1hr facial(the tarot card reader was right, its easy for man to get money off me).

My warm, fleshy, gentle hands was busy with another customer so guess who i got this time. The manager!! Actually i didnt realised it was the manager and i was thinking these hands are not that warm and strong but his massages and positions are a level up. Serious, he's THE MASTER(said with hands in praying posture and head bow respectfully). The facial, there was the cleasing, scrub, mask and moisturing cream. He was so gentle! My goodness. I was wondering if there will be any effect as it seems like he's only cleaning the surface instead of scrubing away the dirt in the pores. But the next morning when i wash my face, it was so so so soft! Seriously. Fah Lanna is worth every baht!!!

But it sure feels strange to tip the manager 80bht. Sigh. To tip or not to tip? What will you do?

Went back to rest after the massage as it was already after 11pm. No plans yet for the next day!

@GreenHut Cafe in Chiang Rai

After a sunny morning at the White Temple which is way above my expectations on top of the fact that I went with much expectations. It's really a scorer. Anyway, now I'm chilling at green hut cafe which is across the street frm the white temple.

Green hut cafe is perhaps a cafe where most of my friends will wish to own. It's a cafe full of toys on display, simple yet cozy cafe that serves good coffee as well as Thai iced tea. Nice place to chill n thanks to the free wifi too!

Catching a 1.45pm bus to Chiang Mai later. Think it will takes 3hrs. Cost us 169bht per pax for a first class seat.

Btw, I survived the night up the mountain with no air con. It wasn't as cold as expected but it was real peaceful. Quiet and peaceful.

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Add-on
We decided to be thrifty and went to the old bus interchange to catch their public bus to the white temple. It was quite easy if you know the Thai name for it and only cost 20bht one way. And the driver will still call out to us when we are there. The journey only took about 30mins.

It was slightly after 9am when we arrived and 10mins later, busful of tourists started pouring in. The place was swamped with ppl, mostly Thais as it was their public holiday. After 2hrs of snapping photos, we found a nearby cafe ato cool down den took the bus back to the city, collect our bags frm The North Hotel and make our way to the new interchange in a song-tiew which cost 20bht.

On the way to Chiang Mai, we stop by the highest hot spring in thailand. I kinda remember this place as id been to CM before, when I was around 10. It felt like this place just that it has become more developed and more commercialise. But one thing still remains unchanged, HOT SPRING EGGS! I love eggs and I like to eat eggs cooked in different ways. So we bought a basket of quail eggs and a basket of brown eggs and soak them in the hot spring for 5 mins. It only cost 20bht per basket that is like 5bht per egg.

We finally reached CM at around 5-6pm, took a tuk-tuk to The Green Tulip (2040bht for 4 nights for 2 of us). Checked in then make our way to the night bazaar via a song-tiew that cost 20bht each. We had a simple dinner of tom tum kung, guay tiew soup and pad Thai which was so so only. The food in CM doesn't taste as yummy as in bkk it seems or maybe I'd lost my appetite lately.

Walk around after dinner, did some shopping not forgetting lots of bargaining which wasn't tt bad as its still the non peak period yet until next week. Then I believe it will be much harder to ask for 'better price'.

Had a Thai massage somewhere as we couldn't remember the location of Fah Lana which was the highly rated massage place in not only CM but in the whole of Thai. Den make our way back after buying some CJ sausages from 7-11.

The second day in CM, we decided to go for the ATV tour which is a 3hrs journey around villages and to a mountain view lookout. It's my first ATV experience and a not too bad one despite being stuck in the mud 4 times and have to wait for help from the guide and his helper. But the highlight of the day is seeing someone lost control of her bike due to speeding and head straight for the bushes. Till now, its still a lovely sight to look back on. This trip cost around 1400bht each. Pricey? Yes. But well, nothing is free.

That night, we went to the night bazaar again but stopped somewhere else along the road for some dinner first. We finally found Fah Lanna (http://fahlanna.com/). The massage, is addictive. After a couple of female massues, I was appointed to a male tis time round and he is damn good. I think, I need a man!

Maybe its due to the fact that he's a lady boy hence he's more gentle and sensitive. And his hands, its so warm it felt like placing a heat pack on my aching muscles. His hands are also fleshy, strong yet gentle. Just what I need! I'd honestly never felt such warm hands before, I think he must have heated them up before starting. The massage cost 200bht for an hour. And its worth every cents. I wonder if he will come to SG one day...

Goodbye SG!

Well, my last trip of the yr. Thou i hope tt this will not be true.

I'll see u in a wk time. Unless i can locate WIFI.

I wonder what will they be serving later.. I know i will be watching Grown Up!


A quick add-on:

The flight was a good one w scrambled eggs. The movie Grown-Up is funny thou i didnt get to finish the whole show. We reached Bkk at 9plus Thai time. Check out, check in for our Air Asia flight to Chiang Rai then went to their food mkt for Thai ice milk tea, mango sticky rice as well as a green milk tea which is surprisingly good. Sit, nua waited for our 11plus flight and finally reach CR at 1pm.

We went to the information center and asked for a map of CR, went to a cafe, ordered a cuppa ice blended coffee, studied the map, called our accommodation guy who came and pick us up and brought us to Akha river house to wait for our transfer up Akha Hill house. There we nua w a beer and french toast then took a short walk around tt area. It was drizzling from time to time hence i was feeling slightly under the weather but all is good after a night sleep. Back to our journey, we took a 4 wheel drive into the mountain and some of those slopes can competes with those we had in kenting. Excellent! Haha.. CHeap thrill. We reach Akha hill at around 6pm and it started pouring.

We checked in, had dinner, went back to shower and went to bed at 9plus. Real healthy living. Woke up at 6am for sunrise but sadly, my travelling luck is not back yet. But well, the yun hai makes up for it. We changed, packed, went for breakfast, checked out and took the 1hr ride back to the city where our guide of the day was waiting for us.

She brought us to the golden triangle, opium museum, monkey caves, Mai Zai which is the border to Burma, we paid 500bht (or USD10) to get our Mymmar stamp and back to Thai again. We ended the tour with a trip to the hilltribes village were we need to pay an entrance fees to into meet the Karens (long neck)and some others which i cant remembr. Like what i'd read from somewhere efoe and here i will quote 'it feels like waking in a human zoo'

The tour starts at 10am and ended at 6pm at a cost of 2000bht each. The whole journey was in a song-tiew, those mini vans with parallel seats which are surprisingly easy to fall asleep in.

Our driver drop us at The North Hotel which cost 900bht per night. A nice and clean guesthouse. We checked in and went to the night market for dinner. It is just a 5mins walk away. Had som tum, bbq salted fish and a fried mamak. With beer as the finishing touch.

The night bazaar is similar to those i frequent in Bkk but their products are.. i guess slightly lagging behind Bkk fashion. But still, nice to end the day with.

ma-de wannabe...

wanted to cook my tofu soup today so went to ntuc to get some. As usual, i will get those that are on sale and trust me, TOFU ARE ALWAYS ON SALE. I off work early so i have the time to slowly browse thru.

I know diff tofu has different uses (other than being make into steam lime tofu n perhaps oreo orange tofu or what have you) such as steaming, fried and soup. But i do not understand why they have silken tofu, super smooth silken tofu and silken tofu with omega3. SO being the xian qi liang mu that i am, i look at their content and start comparing the carbo, proteins, fats (OMG, TOFU HAS FATS TOO!!) and omega3.

In the end, i concluded this:

Chinese Tofu: Less protein
Super Smooth silken Tofu: Most fats
Silken Tofu and silken tofu with omega3 only difference is the latter comes with omega3 which is suppose to be good for the body. How so? Its said to decrease blood pressure, simulate blood circulation as well as reduce risk of heart attack. But only for products with EPA or DHA, products that contains alinolenic acid are not that effective. (source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid)

And the omega3 in the silken tofu with omega3 comes from alinolenic acid. (argg...) Meaning its just not as effective, but still, something better than nothing!

Oh dear.. i just read that too much tofu will cause dementia. But it will help protect the brain for younger and middle age people. I shld warn my FRIENDS to cease their tofu consumption then. TOFU are for young ppl (aka me) only!


Note to self: DO NOT eat spicy cuttlefish and drink mei jiu together unless during times of constipation.

2 more working days to go..

Can't wait. Seriously, can't wait anymore!

I need a breathing space. I'm holding my breath as I type. My face is turning blue.

I need to get out. Real quick!

Let's go nua our lives away!

Tawandang @ Dempsey

Went to tawandang last Thursday for a little celebration. It's a restaurant cumulative pub tt serves Thai food n German beer. The hai food is good! Not the best but real good for sg std. The beer, oh the beer.. It's bitter. Just like all beer is bitter. Actually, the beer is really light. Thou it is describe to be flora and fruity but to me its just light. Cost $45 for a tower.

Actually, wats worth mentioning is their live band. The songs they played that night Nv fails to impress me. From Thai to canto songs, county songs to alba to Nat king Cole to Ronald keating to lady Gaga from seventies Chinese to current pop songs. U really do not know what you will be gg.

Although this place is filled with ppl in the forties age range, its still a great place to chill n relax while you feel like you are the youngest. Oh yeah, life is good.