I am in Love

My sweet, pretty little kitty! She's exactly like how I remember her - apart from being on "permanent loan" to somebody else....

Fine, So I Didn't Die Last Night....

That means I still have to look for a job when I get back to Oz. Damn.

Last Post...?

I just ate pufferfish at a Japanese restaurant about two hours ago. I'm thinking that I may actually die so if I do, "Adios, it's been nice knowing you all."

The fugu tasted like "ba gua".

"One Night in Bangkok"

Well, it was actually four nights in Bangkok, but then, that isn't how the Murray Head song goes, right? (And how would I know about a song that was released back in 1984...? It was a high school 1980s obsession thing so never mind.....)

(Above from right to left: Me & my cousin JY)

I "attended" the bi-annual WAO (World Allergy Organisation) meaning I did the general shopping, eating and lying by the poolside thing whilst my aunty had to do the hard slog at the conference from early morning until night. (She didn't even get time to book herself in for a massage.) Where has time gone? It's hard to believe that WAO Munich was back in 2005 (which I also "attended") - now over two years ago, although it really doesn't feel like it was all that long ago...?)

After going budget for most of my travel this year, It was nice being looked after with the five star hotel and all. Caught a limo from the airport to the hotel - apparently my uncle thought that something might happen to us otherwise - probably more so my cousins than me, although I had to point out that we're already much too old for child prostitution or slavery.

The Hotel
We stayed at the Dusit Thani where the likes of Ronald Reagan, Tom Jones, Santana, Roddick, Whitney Houston and Cliff Richard have apparently stayed. (As you can see from the picture below, JP, my youngest cousin was obviously impressed.)

There is absolutely nothing to do in Bangkok aside from shopping, so when we weren't doing that, we spent the remainder of our time by the poolside. (And no, it wasn't cold. My cousin's just being Singaporean where anything under 32C is considered cold.)

After travelling all around the world, I have to say that the Asian hotels win the award for best service and for serving the best buffet breakfasts. (Asian people are good at being subservient, which goes hand in hand with the good service, I suppose. Apparently our subservient nature and humility is one of the reasons why white guys go for Asian chicks. Totally rules me out.)

Turning Japanese....
Yup, it's still happening. I was given the breakfast menu in Japanese one morning. Although when asked by one of the other hotel guest whether we "were from China," I turned to my cousins afterwards and said, "Actually, I think I much prefer to be mistaken for being Japanese than from mainland China...." (Heh, we're a snobbish bunch of people, we South-East Asians; we don't like to be associated with the China-Mail-Order-Bride, social climbing type. Although technically, we are all originally from mainland China I suppose, like my great-great grandfather.....)

The Shopping
While my aunty was stuck at her conference, the all powerful and mighty GSK organised escorts - yes, that's right, escorts to take us around (and to make sure that we weren't abducted/kidnapped). I didn't really get a bad vibe from Bangkok, but apparently there have been horror stories, and that it's best if you travel in a group, preferrably with a guy...? Our escrots Nick (guy) and Chris (gal) did a great job at playing "bodyguards", taking us to the night markets and the famous Chatuchak (weekend) markets. (It was quite funny actually, as everytime Nick lost sight of one of us, he had this fleeting look of panic on his face of the - "Oh -no, they've-been-kidnapped-for-child-prostitution-and-I'm-going-to-be-out-of-a-job," sort of look.) As great bodyguards as they were, I still found it really strange being escorted by a 26 and 24 year old.

Chatuchak markets were fascinating and sold anything and everything from clothing and furniture through to exotic pets such as squirrels. I saw bunnies in teeny tiny cages, stacked on top of each other and squirrels chained up on leashes. Poor squirrels :/ They were splayed out on people's laps, not moving or even blinking. Nick said that the squirrels look even worse in June time (as it's really hot then,) with their heads hanging off people's laps and their tongues hanging out. PETA would have had a fit. I wanted to take photos but had one lady quickly yell, "NO PHOTOS!" at me.

(Above: My aunty at Chatuchak)

(Below: "Do you think if I paid that busker 500 Baht, he will stop playing that repetitive, three tone tune, or will that just encourage him to play even louder?")

(Below from left to right: JP, me & Chris - post Chatuchak markets and extremely tired....)

"I am still confused with my Thai massage."
I decided to shun the hotel massage (I thought paying $150 Sing was a bit steep for Thailand,) and headed to the streets to a local Thai massage parlour where I was asked to get totally naked (but I don't think I was molested)....?! Heh, good thing I requested for a lady masseur! Hmm, I can really see how "massages" can quickly turn into sex, (and I can't think of anything worse than having to service 40-something, overweight gwai loh types - eeew).

Quirky Facts About Bangkok
The King is omnipresent and photoshopped. When I say omnipresent, I seriously mean he is literally EVERYWHERE -

on the hotel building,

on billboards at shopping centres,

inside other general, random buildings....

at the airport.....

the airport runaway..... You get the picture.

The King is a Trend Setter
Aside from being absolutely adored by the masses, the King, as my aunty put it, also "stimulates the textile industry". The royal colour in Thailand is yellow, and as it was the King's birthday week, about 50% of the population were wearing yellow. Another 25% were wearing baby pink. I found out later that the pink was because he was paparazzied wearing a baby pink suit back in early November. According to the newspaper reports, EVERYBODY went out to buy pink tshirts after that.

The Monks Have Priority Seating on Public Transport

JY: "I thought monks aren't allowed to take public transport?"
Me: "Erm, I think that's the Amish.... I'm pretty sure I've seen monks on planes."

Pecking order according to priority:
1) Monks
2) Children
3) Pregnant women (yeah, getting knocked up is their own fault, isn't it :p~)
4) The elderly

The Food

(Above: Tangerine juice - mmmmm......)

I think I'll let the pictures do the talking.....

We were taken to a really good restaurant in Thailand (Baan Khanitha, 49 Soi Ruam Rudee, Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330) by Nick and Chris.

(Above from left to right: JP, Chris, JY, me, Dr C., my aunt & Chris)

Their mango sticky rice with homemade coconute icecream was to die for. Unfortunately, I didn't take any more photos of the food as I was too busy eating.

We had yummy Vietnamese food at one of the hotel restaurants another night.

Food Not Tried -
The BUGS!!!! Fine, I've tried scorpion before - (it tastes like chips - hee hee), but I would never be able to bring myself to eat fried slug or cockroach.

We only saw fried insects just the one time, so I doubt that eating bugs is all that common in Thailand. (They're probably more for the tourists to gawk at.)

The Gala Dinner
After wearing havaianas in Munich (hey, I forgot to pack dress shoes, and it's not my fault that Germans have big feet,) and jeans to Fouquet's in Paris (hee hee - do boots offset a faux pas of jeans....?), my aunty finally sends me an email to remind me to bring "something slightly better than jeans".

I finally get it right in the attire department, but lose major points by getting lost on the way to the dinner and having over ten people wait for us for about 50 minutes. Oops. (Well, in reality my aunt was about 40 minutes late so they were only waiting an extra 10 minutes.)

I don't think I'm the type of girl that's suited to go to flashy dinners anyway. (I hate all the fuss of ball dresses and the other women's "If my hair isn't looking good, I'm not going to go to the dinner," crap.) Back in high school, while everybody was in their $400 bridesmaid's-esques dresses, I went in my $7 vintage dress. (Ha! At least I was doing vintage before everybody else :p) Uni was a similar affair. I think my dress cost about $2 - vintage again :p

The gala dinner was held at erm, this place -

(The name of the building, I've already forgotten....)

The dinner itself apparently cost $400AUS a head, but I much preferred the food we had at Baan Khanitha.

(Above: My fish and spicy papaya salad starter.)

Now THIS is what I call a prawn, London! (Mmm, my tom yum king prawn main......) This would be a size of a lobster in London, if you're lucky.....

I think the organisers were mainly paying for the 360 degree view of this:

There was a door prize for each table. Unfortunately, our table was "fixed" as we only had my aunty, my two cousins, and my aunty's friend (who really, REALLY didn't want the prize) and me. The prize was er, this thing -

One guess as to which multi-national company sponsored the dinner. Note the lack of occ health and safety regulations with the naked kerosene flame and the big paper flag.

JP ended up "winning" the statue-in-the-box.

My Aunty: "What on earth are we going to do with this thing?"
Me: "Do you think if we left it outside the house, somebody might conveniently steal it for us?"
Dr C: "It's a good thing I didn't win that thing!"

Fortunately, we had some pharmaceutical reps from North Carolina come and sit at our table soon after. One looked quite interested in the statue, so we ended up giving the prize away to him. I spied another one of my aunty's friends carting around the thing at the end of the dinner, and guess what he was trying to do?

Passerby to Dr H: "Oh I see you won the door prize."

Dr H (without missing a beat): "Oh, you want it? I need to get rid of it as I'm leaving Bangkok tomorrow!"

I suspect that he may have left it in his hotel room as a er, present for the cleaners.....