Back In Singapore

This is just to close the loop.

We went to Ma Boon Krong (again!) for dinner last night. Before dinner, we (me and the 2 ladies) split up to walk around on our own, then met for dinner. We didn't eat in the food court - we all agreed the food was not good enough for that. We ate in a pseudo-Japanese noodle shop. You can imagine what the food is like. I wanted to order a set meal, which came with a drink. The picture in the menu showed Coca-Cola. When I asked if I could have Sprite or 7-up, the answer was "cannot change". So no set meal for me last night.

I walked around looking for good Thai music DVDs to buy, but didn't hear any. The last time I was in Bangkok, I bought that DVD with the My Love song which I like very much. Maybe I should post it here, but the file is super big.

The movie DVDs are super cheap. You can get the not so new DVDs like 2 for S$5. The quality is ok only. Most of them are in Thai and English sound, and Thai and English (some even Korean, Chinese etc) subtitles.

We bought some tidbits and snacks to bring back to Singapore. Good thing I managed to squeeze everything into my luggage and haversack.

From MBK, we took the train to Asok station, got off and doubled back on foot to the hotel. We walked along Sukhumvit Road, which is lined with roadside peddlars of all kinds of goods. We passed some young ladies - too pretty to be real girls, probably she-males. We stopped at a MacDonald's for a drink - it was like super quiet, and there was only one other customer in the shop besides us.

After breakfast, we packed, checked out of the hotel and left for the airport.

So we breezed all the way back to Singapore. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the second half of Slumdog Millionaire. It was a completely different set of movies.

Dennis - you know what to do.

Here are some pictures I randomly took in the airport.

In Bangkok

This is my second day in Bangkok. I am here for a meeting, and it’s been work almost all the day. I was telling MDM, mdm and Dennis this. I get more than 100 emails a day now, and I’ve been spending a lot of time clearing emails here in Bangkok. If I don’t, I will be overwhelmed when I get back to Singapore.

I arrived here yesterday evening in a 2 hour+ SQ flight. The flight was quite empty, and I watched half of Slumdog Millionaire in the plane. I hope to watch the other half in the flight back on Friday morning. Good movie. Got to see the ugly side of Indian poverty. The child actors are good.


The new Bangkok airport (where they had the sit in during the demonstrations) is big, It reminds me of Changi Airport. The outside after clearing immigration and customs reminds me of KL International Airport.

We (4 of us) booked a airport van that took us to the hotel. The ride was smooth, although there were parts where traffic was slow because of the evening rush hour. According to my colleague, the ride usually takes about 45 minutes if there is no jam. We took only about 30 minutes yesterday. Apparently, the driver knew some short cuts.

We are staying at the Plaza Athenee Bangkok, a 5-star hotel. Nice. Take a look at the pictures.












This is the key card to the room (front and back).



And the preferred guest card (that's me) - front and back too.



After deposting our bags, we went out to Ma Boon Krong for dinner. We took the Bangkok transit train. Their system is very much like ours. It is different from the last time I was here. Maybe I took a different system then. I remember we used tokens, but this time we used cards similar to the MRT cards that we used when the MRT first started operations. The back of the card shows the stations and route. Look at them.



Here’s the train.


The inside of the cabin is very cold. Our rides were short, so didn’t get to really enjoy the air-cond comfort. The temperature here is much like in Singapore – stiflingly humid and hot.

Here’s Ma Boon Krong, from the outside.




The inside reminds me a lot of People’s Park. You can get lots of stuff here, from handphones to furniture.




Here’s something I haven’t seen before. A handphone charging machine. What I figured out was you have to put in coins to charge your handphone. What I haven’t figured out is what do you do when your handphone is charging – just stand there and wait? For how long?


The food court is nothing to shout about. They use coupons system – you buy the coupons and use them to get your food. You can get a full refund for the unused coupons.


Apparently, this system is more hygienic. The food handlers don’t need to handle money. They also have boiling hot water next to the forks, spoons and chopsticks. You dip these utensils in to sterilize. Who says Singapore is the cleanest place in this part of the world?

That’s all for now. Hopefully, we can get some free time to go out tomorrow evening. Then I should have more to share with you later on.

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