Bangkok Shopping Trip – Part VI

Terminal 21 shopping mall opened in year 2011, but I only get to go there during this trip because I have more time. This 9 storey mall is pretty interesting because it has a different city theme for each storey.
LG Floor – Caribbean
G Floor – Rome
M Floor – Paris
1st Floor – Tokyo
2nd Floor – London
3rd Floor – Istanbul
4th Floor – San Francisco (City)
5th Floor – San Francisco (Pier)
6th Floor – Hollywood

On each level, you will see the departure and arrival signages (similar to the airport). It kinda makes you feel that you have just alighted from a plane and arrived at a new city. Every level is also decorated to suit the city theme.

Do check out the LG floor where the gourmet market is. I bought a stick of grilled chicken at only 10 baht there, and it’s so so so yummy! Super tender meat and very well marinated!

Do try this lemongrass drink from the supermarket. It’s very refreshing!

After shopping, we went to level 5 where the food court is located. Despite the atas looking mall, the food in this food court is one of the cheapest I have seen.

Similar to other food courts, we need to purchase the card with stored value (unused value will be refund upon returning the card at the counter).

See this big plate of mango sticky rice? It’s only 70 baht!

This fishball and char siew noodles at only 40-50 baht. The bowl is super big (like the ramen bowl) so it makes the portion look small.

This bowl of tom yum soup with 2 river prawns at only around 70 baht!

There are other food like congee for 30 baht, pig intestine soup with rice roll at 50 baht, etc. I was too amazed by the price that I walk round the food court 3 times but couldn’t decide on what to eat.

Feeling that we unspent on lunch, I went to get another plate of oyster omelette.

The young coconut is very refreshing. It’s a must-try if you dine there.

To get to Terminal 21 shopping mall, take BTS to Asok station and go to exit 1. Alternatively, take MRT to Sukhumvit station and go to exit 3.

 

 

 

Bangkok Shopping Trip – Part V

One of the evenings, I brought Pakcik to the very cheap massage place near Bangkok City Hotel. The massage place is named Zen, and it provides good Thai massage. The shop only charges 200 baht for 1 hour of Thai traditional massage, and only 450 baht for 1 hour of body scrub. The facility is pretty basic but the service is good. I love Thai massage because my old bones need some serious cracking. As for the body scrub, it left me with baby skin for the next 2 weeks~
=)

I didn’t take any pictures of the shop, but if you walk from Ratchathewi BTS station towards Bangkok City Hotel, or Samran Hotel, you will definitely see the massage place. I took exit 4 of the BTS station, if I didn’t remember wrongly, otherwise, just go to the Asia hotel that exit and follow the map below.

After the enjoyable massage, we went to the zi char stall for dinner. If you walk along the main road from Bangkok City Hotel towards Ratchathewi BTS, you will definitely see a few zi char stalls with a lot of customers (mainly locals). Do note that the zi char stalls only opens after 5 or 6pm.

The menu is in Thai, but some of the staff speak English. If all else fails, just look at the pictures, point and order. It’s not the first time we dine here, so we pretty much know what to order.

Because it’s a night stall, the staff will set up tables and chairs along the walkway for the customers. After the stall closes, all the tables and chairs will be removed.
After placing order, the staff will serve us a plate of raw cabbage and mint leaves. I see the locals munching these veggies with their food. The cabbage is very sweet and crunchy, while the mint leaves help to freshen our breath after food.

The mango salad is awesome~ With good proportion of fish sauce, lime juice and sugar, the salad tastes so appetizing. Plus, it’s not spicy.

The shrimp omelette is a killer. As you can see, the eggs are fluffy and fried till golden brown. Do prepare to consume more rice than usual because it taste so good with rice.  There’s also ketchup to add more flavour to the eggs.

We wanted to order kang kong (morning glory vegetable) but I think we pointed the wrong picture to the staff. The veggies served to us did look like kang kong, but it’s vege with solid and tough stem. The leafy part is pretty good, but the stem is too fibrous to chew. Very good wok hei, but with the wrong veggie.

We ordered the usual salt grilled catfish. Both of us love this fish because the meat is so tender and juicy. The fish is coated with lotsa salt, lemongrass stuffed into its mouth, and grilled slowly over charcoal flame. To eat this fish, just peel the skin and eat only the meat with the dipping sauce. The salt actually helps to bring out the sweetness of the meat, and when dipped in the lime chilli sauce, it’s very yummy!

It’s a big fish which can be shared among 3-4 people. Do note that there is limited number of fish per night.

I highly recommend this seafood fried rice. The wok hei is superb and the prawns are so fat and crunchy.

Happy with the table of food!

For this meal, we spent about S$30. With this amount of money in sg, I think we can only get 1 fish. So do try it when you go to Bangkok. If you don’t know which stall to go to, just choose the one with the most number of local customers and you can’t be wrong. There are plenty of such stalls around Bangkok city, but I prefer this area because it looks cleaner and neater.

The moon that night was super bright and big too~

Bangkok Shopping Trip – Part IV

Curious about the new shopping area, Asiatique, we went to check it out on a weekday evening. There is a free shuttle boat from BTS Saphan Taksin station which starts from 4pm daily and ends around 11pm.

After alighting at the BTS Saphan Taksin station, walk towards the pier and you will see the signage for the free shuttle boat.

If you want to avoid long queue at the pier, I would suggest going there before 5.30pm.

The boat ride is about 15 minutes.

This place used to be a pier belonging to the East Asiatic Company owned by a Danish national, for exportation of teak wood. Now the warehouses have been converted into shops selling clothes, accessories, furniture, home furnishings, as well as restaurants and bars.

This place is great for photo taking. Shops generally start opening after 5pm, so come early and grab the opportunity to take as much photos before the crowd pours in.

We did a bit of shopping before going for dinner.

Food is generally pricier at Asiatique. We found this less pricey zi char stall with super long queue. As the stall is super crowded, don’t expect a comfortable dining experience. We had eat at a very small table, seat very close to the customer at the next table, and the staff moved around the tiny space serving food. Definitely not a place to impress a date.

The Thai milk tea is pretty good.

We had the vermicelli with seafood. Notice how the ingredients are placed separately on the plate? Yep, they are cooked separately and we have to mix them up before eating. I don’t know if they do this to speed up cooking time or is this the way it should be. I didn’t ask because the staff were too busy.

The omelette is pretty good. It has the kind of wok hei and good ratio of oil to eggs. Anyway, to make this kind of omelette, you just need more oil than egg and a very hot wok.

Kang kong with roasted pork. Not bad~
We didn’t order many dishes because our table couldn’t contain them, and my head was going to explode from the noise and crowd. *SK is claustrophobic* 

Overall the food is decent, nothing to rave about.