Bangkok Day 4: Last day here

Woke up earlier today to make sure we met Alan Ku-ku and Uncle Jon for breakfast before they headed out. This time, we tried their local fare from the menu too:

Beef noodles

Omelet

Then we headed back to the room to shower and get ready to go out. We left Nanna to rest in the room while we took the BTS back to Terminal 21 Asok to go to Jaspal. Here we were met with much better service and ended up buying more stuff for everyone. 

We also bought some t-shirts for Evelyn and Kakak. Also got another packet of mango for Nanna (she was complaining the night before that Ku-ku only bought her ONE packet)

Then we waited for Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim to reach and we headed out to have lunch at Aree Seafood. We were keen to try this as Ah Kim said it wasn't too bad. But they were afraid that Uncle Jon may not be able to eat there, so we came here after they've left to the airport. The place was supposed to be a 5 min walk away, but with Nanna, it took us 15 mins (at the very least). It was rather hot inside, but the food was not too bad. 

We went back to the hotel to cool down and you and I took turns to enjoy the bathtub before it was time to finish packing up and heading to the airport. We called a Grab and arrived at the airport. As Ku-ku had requested for a wheelchair, we were quickly brought into the departure hall via the Business Class entrance. And we're thankful that we had the man pushing the wheelchair as that meant having a "guide" to bring us to the places we needed to go (the airport was massive): the tax refund, duty free shops, taking the train to the other terminal, going to the departure lounge.

Flight was delayed to take off, and we were so hungry. But.. the food was so disappointing. 

Ah well, I still ate everything up

Arrived in Penang with the wheelchair service waiting for us. Daddy picked us up, then went to BM to drop Nanna home before we got home at 12midnight. 

I hope you had fun on this impromptu trip 

Bangkok Day 3: A little shopping and a good dinner

Alan Ku Ku was going to meet with Uncle Jon's relatives. So we planned to meet Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim. They had an early start going to Big C. Ah Kim told me there was good shopping in Terminal 21. Turned out there were 2: Asok and Rama3. She had told me it was Rama 3 where Moshi Moshi was located. 

Well, we arrived at the mall (it was just 3 stations away from us), got a wheelchair for Nanna and off we went. 

The shops seemed a little disappointing. Then a quick Google indicated that we were at the wrong one! Oh well, we still went around looking at the little shops, which seemed to be selling very overpriced items. Feeling disappointed, we headed to the basement and et voila! There were shops there more suited to our liking. We managed to get something for daddy and Evelyn. Then went into Jaspal (local brand) and something for me too. You saw something for Denisse, but were not sure about it. 

Just as we were about to leave, an accident happened. We were rushing for the lift when you moved faster than I could and hit my foot with the wheelchair. It started bleeding. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt much. We then headed back to the hotel. There, I managed to get someone help clean up the wound and cover it up. 

It was a rather big gash

The nice security with a bag of first aid supplies

Well, that meant that I could not swim.. so we still headed to the pool and sat in the bar next to the pool. Had some drinks while you went for a quick swim. 

My drink

Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim came later to the room. Then 3 of us (with Ah Kim) decided to head out to Big C as there was a Moshi Moshi outlet there (near Central World where we were to meet for dinner) to look see first. 

When the rest of them reached Central World, we headed over there to have dinner. Settled on a restaurant Khao-Jaan Prod. The food was nice, different style from the Thai food we had on the first night. 

Miang Kam

After dinner, we did a little shopping: Checked out the Jaspal here, bought your bag then got lost trying to reach Big C to meet with the rest of them. Again, the 3 of us decided to take the BTS back to the hotel. On the way back, we stopped at the 7-Eleven to pick up some stuff before heading back for a cold beer and rest. 

Bangkok Day 2

Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim arrived at 8am for breakfast with us at the hotel. After that, we got ready to go out. By the time we hopped into the Grab, it was 10.30am. It takes quite a while for our Grab to arrive as the traffic in Bangkok just need us to plan with a lot of buffer time to arrive early/on time.
Well, the plan was to visit Wat Arun then cross the river. Unfortunately, we arrived just as the closed the temple doors for Kathina offerings. In fact Alan Ku-ku, Nanna and Uncle Jon had arrived on time. But they came out to meet us, and so could not visit the temple.

So we took a short walk to the boat/ferry to cross the Chao Phraya River to go to Wat Pho.

Teh Tarik coloured river

Enjoying the ride

All decked up

It was just a short ride crossing the river. We quickly had a group photo taken before heading to Wat Pho.

Alan Ku-ku bought the tickets and in we go:

Wat Pho is a famous landmark to visit when in Bangkok. We headed to the main building which housed the large reclining Buddha. It's much bigger than the one in Penang. We had to remove our shoes (as we'd already expected), but it was better organized where (like in Japan) we were given a reusable bag to keep our shoes in. After making our way around, we could put on our shoed and just return the bag.

It's a very large statue

Beautiful painting

Then we headed back to the jetty. It was too hot and no one was too keen to visit the Grand Palace (which would minimally take 2 hours to visit). So we bought our tickets and hopped onto a (nicer) ferry heading to Icon Siam.

Sunning ourselves out in the hot sun

We arrived just at lunch time, and the food court was packed. It was also not easy to find a table to fit all 7 of us. In the end, we decided to dine at one of the restaurants nearby to the foodcourt. 

Evan and I shared this

After lunch, Alan Ku-ku and Uncle Jon decided that they'd make their way back after a quick stop at Uniqlo. Nanna opted to follow us, so we walked a little, shopped a little before calling our Grab and heading back to the hotel. 

The hotel offers an evening service (we decline the service yesterday as it was rather crowded in the room). Wah.. they literally re-made the room, setting the sweets, drinking cup and water at the bedside and even changing the towels. 

Dinner is a quick/simple dinner at Central Embassy, just the 4 of us. Then we sent Nanna back to the hotel and the 3 of us took the BTS over to Central World. Found the Japanese brand bag which you were interested in. You decided to give it more thought before buying it. Alan Ku-ku headed back before us. As we were leaving, we decided to check out Big C (recommended by Ah Kim). Bought some dried mango after sampling them. We'd paid and left before remembering we'd forgotten our beer (again). Went to the convenient store styled Big C, but the choices were very disappointing, so we headed back to the main store to pick up a couple of beers.

Walked back to the ChitLom station to catch our ride back to Ploenchit station.

Our beer from the night before.. it was cool only as the fridge was not able to keep the drinks cold 😒

While you slept on the sofa yesterday, you said it was quite cold, despite covering with the throw. So tonight we asked you to join us in bed. After all, it's a super king bed. 

Long Weekend in Bangkok - Day 1

It was a last minute decision to have you come along. (And a rather expensive one too...). We decided to have you tag along after our visit to BM last weekend. Well, we could not get you a ticket on the same flight as us, so you took your own flight via Lion Air. 

Nanna, Alan Ku-ku and I arrived earlier and headed to the hotel, Rosewood Bangkok. Then we headed out to eat something in the nearby Central Embassy. This was some of the snacks that we had:

Soon we were informed that our (Nanna and I) room was ready. So I headed back with Nanna while Ku-ku hung around and met up with Uncle Jon and his cousin. We rested in the room a while and very soon you arrived (after a bit of a mess over you getting a Grab and the cards being rejected). We quickly headed back to the food court in Central Embassy, since you were hungry (forgot that the no frills airlines means no food or drinks!). You quickly settled down with the Thai Boat Noodles. It came with a good serving of beef:

As we were eating, you spotted the fried oyster omelet. So you ordered a portion for us to try. Daddy said to remember this is Thai and not your favourite Hokkien version! 

Then we wandered around the mall and even walked to the adjoining mall Central Chitlom. Before heading back, we headed to the food court again to pick up something for Nanna and also beer. Turned out that we could not buy beer. The sale of beer is halted between 2-5pm in Thailand. 

Rested abit and soon we met up with the rest (Alan Ku-Ku, Uncle Jon, Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim) at the Thai restaurant in the hotel. 

Wow! The food was amazing! Only managed to take a couple of photos (and forgot to take a family photo too.. duh!)

Tomyam Kung

Crab Fried Rice

Then we headed out to Jodd Fair with Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim. First thing Ku-ku bought was crocodile meat on a skewer. He got two.. so we shared one of it between us. Nothing much to see here. 

We ordered this grilled squid, but it was a disappointment as we could see that the grill was not hot. It was mainly cooked using the flame thrower. Worst of all, it was then slathered (too generously) with some spice sauce. The fat and long skewer also made it difficult to eat the squid. Ended up throwing most of it away.

The consolation for the trip was the coconut ice-cream. We got to sit down and enjoy this and chat. 

Then it was time to head back. But before that, we grabbed a couple of local IPA to try. 

Our Grab dropped Ah Kim and Ku-ku home first then dropped us off at the hotel. 
This is the room we were booked in:

Big super king bed

Bathtub with a view 

(for us to look at or other people to look at us.. )

Personalized greeting

There was even a cake for us to eat

Graduation Trip

Quite a while back, you mentioned that you wanted to go on a graduation trip with your classmates. After a lot of back and forth on where to go.. there was silence. You said that everyone could not agree on a place to go. In the end, you all finally agreed on visiting Kota Kinabalu. 

It seemed that the plans were set in motion quite quickly: tickets bought, accommodation booked, and even driver booked. 

So after you came back from Johor for the competition, you had to quickly wash the clothes you needed and off you went to Kota Kinabalu.

We're happy that you shared some of your experiences and plans even while on holidays.

Here are the photos of your AirBnB in Kundasang:

And then another photo of a super yucky food which you regretted ordering. 

You sounded like you had great fun. Drinking (in moderation as you claim) and doing a lot of activities. 

And by the time you landed in KLIA2 from the trip, we were already in KL all ready to bring you back to Penang. 

Water-less Weekend in Penang

It was a scheduled water interruption, which was supposed to start on Friday evening at 10pm up till 10pm on Saturday. We had initially planned to just stay at home since we still have the containers to store the water and would go to the golf club to shower. But turned out that the club also closed the showers to the members!

Then Ah Ma didn't feel well and decided that she did not want to go to the condo with Ah Kong. So in the end, the 3 of us decided to join him at the condo. We sure had a lot to pack, clothes, towels, beddings. Then we headed in 2 cars: Mei-mei with Ah Kong and daddy and I in another car where we stopped at Jaya Grocer to pick up some stuff for the condo. 

By the time we settled down, it was quite late. Unfortunately, Mei-mei's room air-con decided to KO. So you slept in the room with me, and daddy slept on the floor. We did not have extra bedding for the other room. 

The next day, we woke up, had a shower and headed to Tanjung Bungah market for breakfast before heading to Island Glades to send you to music class. Then went back home and got some stuff. Ah Kong also went home as he'd forgotten his medicine pack. So he brought Ah Ma back to the condo too.

Morning view from the balcony

While you had initially insisted not to miss ballet lessons, you ended up deciding to skip it. So we picked you up then stopped by the shop to pick up Ah Ma's hearing aids. Then I placed an order for a pizza Margherita at Otto Pizza and we picked it on the way back to Batu Ferringhi.

We relaxed around the house and in the evening, we went for a swim. Then we had to go off as it looked like a storm was coming. You'd spotted the parasailer while swimming, so took a photo of them from the balcony when we went home.

We decided that to be on the safe side, dinner was to be from Tanjung Bungah onwards towards Batu Ferringhi. So we tried out this Japanese Restaurant. Some home cooking style. The food was good and reasonably priced too. 

Supposed to be rose shaped, but it cannot be clearly seen in the photo

Decorations

We had some appetizers and each a main:

On the next day, you had no Karate lessons. So we got to sleep in a little. For breakfast, daddy convinced me to take a walk to the main road where there are Malay stalls selling nasi lemak bungkus. Urgh.. the uphill walk is tough.. finally relented to walk there. And what did we discover? The shops were closed!!! Arghhh... he asked if I'd wanted to walk to the nearby (not really near) McDonald's, and he got a "NO" as an answer. So we walked up the hill to the condo then headed to the carpark to get the card and drive over. 

For lunch, we decided to try the relatively newly renovated Astaka Hillside. The place was surprisingly airy and had an interesting variety of food choices. As it was still early, we headed to Island 88 (a.k.a. Island Plaza) where we did a little shopping then headed back home. 

Tuition was at the usual 3pm. It was supposed to extend to 5pm, but teacher didn't so once you were done, we headed downstairs to the pool.

View from the pool

Water baby having fun

Then it was time to head back, shower and head out to dinner before going home. We decided to go to the Astaka again. 

By the way, it was a good thing that we decided to stay at the condo. The water supply ended up returning 10 hours later (8am on Sunday) due to some high tide causing delays to the schedule.