This post is the continuation of the First day of Heineken Star Final at Krabi that was published in this blog about a week ago.

After getting back from Aonang beach the night before and having decided that there isn’t exactly anywhere to have authentic Thai food at the area, Mell and I decided to seek local food elsewhere.

Thai beef noodle, with beef balls and meat

Instead of having lunch provided by Heineken at Sheraton, we walked out of the hotel and chanced up upon this little beef noodle place just a block away to the south. With some finger pointing and my super limited Thai language, we managed to order a bowl of beef ball noodle for Mell, and another bowl of mixed beef and beef ball noodle for me.

The portion was quite small, reminding me of hawker food in Penang, but they do however, tastes rather good. The beef was tender and the beef ball had a good texture going on too. I particularly like the abundance of bean sprouts and vegetables served here. It was pretty good for brunch, and it was only 30 baht each.

happiness is when you have good breakfast to start the day

While horng and suanie were still on the island hopping trip arranged by Heineken (their accounts here, and here), Mell and I thought about heading to Krabi town. That idea was scrapped as soon as we saw that the hotel shuttle charges 400 baht per person for a round trip ride, which just doesn’t make economic sense.

And I had thought that hotel shuttles are free. Thanks Sheraton, for building your resort so far away from civilization and charge significant dollars for your shuttle services, hmph!

another nameless Tomyam place near Sheraton at Krabi, Thailand

After brunch, we spent some time walking around the hotel and chilling. We also discovered that there were computers with internet access at the business center for hotel guests, free of charge! That was when I took the opportunity to check my mails and go on twitter for a bit.

Since brunch was relatively light, we got hungry again by early evening. For the early dinner, we again went exploring at the small strips of shops outside the hotel and came to this little nameless restaurant with an old lady as the head chef.

two bowls of tomyam (prawn and chicken), and omelet

Again with my limited Thai language, I tried to order a tomyam prawn (tomyam kung) and a basil chicken dish to go with rice. After spending at least 5 minutes pointing and talking, I thought I had nailed it down.

When food came, it was two bowls of tomyam instead – tomyam prawn and tomyam chicken. Mission 50% passed. I then went to the kitchen and ordered an omelet dish so that we have some variety.

The tomyam soups were not as strong tasting as those we had at Pradiphat street in Bangkok, but they were pretty good in their own rights. We finished everything and only had to pay some 200 baht for a couple well fed and satisfied stomachs.

BBQ dinner with Heineken

At night, we gathered at the hotel for a Thai BBQ dinner that was actually pretty delicious. Highlights of Champions League games were played and we met quite a few hardcore fans in the ballroom. It was hilarious how some of the fans from Cameroon reacted when Eto’o failed to score as if it was a live game. VJ Utt from MTV Asia hosted the event with another pretty lady, but I didn’t pay much attention.

Mell and I decided to take some rest before the game and we ended up sleeping in the hotel room while Horng & Suanie danced away at the canopy with giant screen. It turned out to be a decent choice, Suan was too tired to watch the game by the time we got there, and Horng was so spent after the game he ended up not able to go to work the day after. Hahaha

Champions League Final – MU vs Barcalona

Heineken did put up a great show before and during half time of the game with their over energetic cheer leading squad flipping and jumping to the music. However, the game itself was a bit anticlimactic, MU basically went to sleep after 15 minutes. Two goals later, Mell, being an MU fan, couldn’t take it anymore and so we headed back to the room to watch it on TV instead.

We had an early breakfast at the hotel and headed to the hotel by 10 something in the morning to fly back to KL. It was a pretty enjoyable holiday in spite of the rain that fell quite heavily 60% of the time we were there.

That was 3 weeks ago, I wouldn’t mind another holiday now!

Tags:  beef-noodle,  heineken,  horng,  krabi,  mellissa,  suanie,  Thailand

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »

Sometimes last year I went to a Heineken sponsored event at TTDI Plaza. It was a bit of a last minute plan that Horng and Suan ended up joining me to form a team of 3 and participated in a flash game competition, a game that we ultimately won against the other 9 teams of players. I had previously blogged about the game here.

The prize was a 3 day/2 night trip to Krabi for the 3 of us together with some 280 winners and media guests from all over the world during the Champions League week. Mell decided to join us to the trip as well.

Heineken basically booked the whole of Sheraton

We took an Air Asia flight to Krabi last Wednesday and arrived at the destination at around 1pm, bright and sunny. Heineken had apparently booked pretty much the whole Sheraton for the event.

I had previously stayed at the very same hotel (probably the same block), the room was very nice with its lush bed tastefully done interior design overseeing the huge garden and beach. We were each given a hotel room as the winners of the competition.

KY, Mell, Horng, and Suan enjoying lunch

After checking in and got our programs all sorted out, we were treated to the buffet lunch at the hotel. I must say that the lunch was a bit lackluster and I had initially expected a lot more out of Sheraton, but well, at least the drinks was good.

It would have been a lot more awesome if we were able to go to the Duck Noodle place instead but the hotel proved to be too far (at least 45 minutes and probably 800 baht worth of taxi ride) from where the restaurant is located.

kayaking and swimming at Sheraton (pic from Suanie.net)

After dinner, we adjourned to the beach for some fun under the sun.  There were kayaking, wind surfing, beach football and a variety of other activities organized by Heineken. Mell decided that she was going to join us in kayaking while Suan was happy to be the photographer. As you can see, Mell did a great job “kayaking”, no?

We then spent some time at one of the two very nice infinity pools, it was both relaxing and tiring. A perfect start of the holiday.

Thai steamed fish, seafood tomyam, and green curry

Not wanting to risk another bad meal at the hotel, we decided to head to town for some Thai food. The taxi we managed to get was actually not exactly a proper taxi, but the lady who runs a massage place just opposite Sheraton. We negotiated with the lady to send us to Aonang town for 700 baht round trip, and we were there some 30 minutes later, it is that far.

Dinner at one of those touristy restaurants

Aonang is basically a very touristy town that is much like Batu Ferringhi in Penang. We walked for some 20 minutes and before concluded that there were no “authentic” dining place, so dinner was at a touristy restaurant by the name of Krabi Tour Thai Cusine.

We ordered seafood tomyam, green curry, vegetable, and a Thai style steamed barramundi to go with some steamed rice. The food was quite good (especially the fish), but not to the standard of those Mell and I had at Pradiphat street, Bangkok. It came to about 900 baht, a bit pricey for Krabi standard, but at least it tasted pretty good.

Thai massage is a must, look at Horng’s facial expression when he saw his masseuse

We walked along Aonang for a bit, the town is littered with shops selling a variety of art works, t-shirts, and souveniers. Suan and Horng bought an soft plastic camera underwater casing for 340 baht that turned out to be a very wise investment.

Before heading back to the hotel, we went for a Thai massage at one of the many massage parlors (for 200 baht an hour). I’ve always enjoyed Thai massage, a bit of stretching and human pretzel actions always make my body feel very relaxed and rejuvinated. Horng was a bit apprehensive of his big masseuse but she turned out to be very good at what she does. Suan, on the other hand, complained that her first massage experience did not go so well as the lady was not strong enough.

We then called our taxi and headed back to the hotel to crash, it was a pretty tiring but very enjoyable first day at Krabi.

Tags:  heineken,  horng,  hotel,  krabi,  mellissa,  suanie,  thai-fish,  Thailand

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »

Since I am heading to Krabi in a few hours’ time, it is appropriate that I write about the awesome dinners Mell and I had during our visit to Bangkok last February. Something that I shouldn’t have waited so long to do, but there’re just so many things and so little time, oh well!

this guy sells a few types of typical Thai dishes

Our first dinner at Bangkok was infact our second night there, after a long day at the city, we came back to our hotel at Reflections Rooms and decided to dine right by street next to the hotel lobby. I ordered two plates of Pad See Yew for dinner.

Pad See Yew, with plenty of chili padi if you need them

The pad see yew is basically fried flat rice noodle with vegetable, egg, pork (sometimes substitute with chicken or beef), and vegetable. Fish sauce, soy sauce, and pepper are also among the ingredients that made up this dish. I’ve had pad see yew quite a number of times, and this must be one of the best tasting I’ve tried yet.

The dinner was around 70 baht, water was free.

a stall offering variety of dishes with rice

After having a pretty tiring first day at Chatuchak, we decided to try the other stall right next to the first one we ordered pad see yew from. This is one of the many stalls that littered the streets offering a wide variety of dishes that goes with rice. They only have 2-3 tables set up by the pavement, I guess most of their business are the drive-through type.

long bean with chicken, and seafood tomyam

We ordered a bowl of seafood tomyam, and with some sign language mad skills, I managed to also ordered long bean with chicken to go with two rice.

The tomyam was so good! Very sour, spicy, and full of that authentic tomyam that is so tough to find outside Thailand. Though the ingredients were nothing luxurious (some small shrimps, a bit of squid, mushroom, ginger, green onion, shallots, chili padi), the overall taste was just superb.

yes, the tomyam were spicy!

The chicken with long bean too was a very tasty dish that goes really well with rice. Though not quite as hot as the tomyam, this vegetable dish too came with green pepper (jalopeno?) and some chili padi. The base had a strong taste of fish sauce that worked well with the chicken and provided good contrast to the tomyam.

Everything came to only 110 baht, again, ice water was free.

fried egg, squid with cabbage, and tomyam

We went to the same place again for the third consecutive night cos the food was just so good. This time we asked for (by pointing and sign language yet again) fried egg that looks and tasted much like our local telur dadar; a squid and cabbage dish that for once, isn’t really something spicy, but pretty tasty nonetheless; and of course, the very same tomyam again.

It costs a something like 140 baht this time, and oh so delicious!

another stall further to the west of our hotel

Tragically, when we went back to the same place on our last night at Bangkok, we discovered the hard way that the stalls are closed on Mondays. We then walked a few minutes to the west of our hotel (still on Pradipat Road) and chanced up upon this other hawker stall that offers similar type of foods. As usual, my super limited Thai and some hand gestures came to rescue.

tomyam, pork with brinjal, kangkung with chicken

We ordered tomyam with fish, a pork dish, and a kangkung with chicken to go with rice. The tomyam was different this time, a bit more sour than previous, less soupy, and a lot more spices. I feel that I prefer the previous version but some might like the intensity of this one.

Cooked with sweet sauce, peppercorn,  basil, and a type of brinjal, the fatty pork slices soaked in the flavor and made the pork dishes rather delicious. As for the kangkung, well, it wasn’t very different from what we get here, but did provide a contrast to all the meat dishes we had.

If I remember correctly, this meal was around 200 baht. A bit pricier probably due to the fact hat we had more meat dishes.

map of Reflections Rooms Hotel

Address:
Outside Reflections Rooms Hotel
224/2-18 Pradipat Rd.,
Samsennai,Phayathai,
Bangkok 10400 Thailand
GPS: 13.790110,100.545947

Tags:  bangkok,  hawker,  mellissa,  pad see yew,  spicy,  street food,  Thailand,  tomyam

Posted by KY | 31 Comments »

One of the reasons I chose to go to Bangkok for holiday despite being there just a year ago was the chance to stay at Reflections Rooms that I had first read from Su Ann. The other, more important reason would be the fact that Mell wanted to shop at Chatuchak.

Furthermore, due to the weird and wonderful cosmic arrangement, Reflections is located at mere 5 minutes away from Chatuchak via the hotel’s free tuk-tuk service, which makes the decision an absolute no brainer.

Lobby at Reflections, quirky and unique

The quaint little boutique hotel only has 36 rooms housed in 3 separate blocks of buildings right next to each other. Each and every room is uniquely designed with it’s own theme: color of the wall, the design of the toilet, arrangement of furniture, types of couch, floor finishing, tables, and even the shape of the room space are different. The only common thingy they shared is probably the 21″ TV and big comfortable king size bed.

There are no rooms with separate single beds, so this might not be an ideal place for 2 straight guys to share a room.

Room 202 – Hong Kong Pat

Our first room was the very quirky Room 202, Hong Kong Pat. Hong means room in Thai, and Kong “Pat” is the artist who created the room. He is also known as the “Bangkok’s Mr. Idea Man, Mr. Can-Do, Mr. How-To.”

a little balcony for outdoor chilling, mirror for the lady

The room took up the entire floor space of a previous shop lot (as many rooms were) and turned it into more of a studio apartment than a normal run-off-the-mill hotel room. It was at least 12 to 14 feet wide and probably 50 feet deep. The walls were painted dark cyan on two sides, with the remaining a contrasting white. Big canvases hung on them with original paintings barely visible underneath all the scribbles and artistic outputs from previous tenants.

3 stooges lamps, disco lights, and the awesome soft toy couch

On the bare concrete floor right after we stepped in a room there is a sofa and the very awesome little couch that is covered entirely with soft toys. There are also lamps on 3 dolls affixed in the style of coal miners and even a disco light at the far corner that we left on while going to sleep, serving as a funky alternative to the boring night light.

we leave our marks on the walls of Room 202

The toilet at the end of the room (which was quite a walk for midnight relieves) has only a shower curtain and no door. But as a bonus, it comes with 2 shower heads *wink*. Even though the room was located on the ground floor, it comes with a small balcony with a couple chairs, very handy especially for those nicotine recharge periods.

Paints were readily available in the room, before we reluctantly checked out from Room 202, we left our scribbles on the wall, just like the dozens of past temporary tenants.

Room 303 – Medicine Machine

Because we stayed there for 5 nights, we are allowed to change room once (unfortunately there isn’t an option to stay in a different room every night, and it’ll be too much of a hassle anyway). Our second selection was Room 303 – Medicine Machine, located on the first floor, opposite block from the previous room. The hotel staff was kind enough to transfer all our luggage to the new room while we were out.

striking orange fake leather couch makes up the small living room

Room 303 is a converted converted from an office space, slightly smaller than 202 but still at least twice the size of an ordinary hotel room. The set up is like a vintage 70s office with its orange fake leather couch and wooden tea table facing a cork board wall that serves as a place to hang cloths.

the white and almost hospital like theme with a quaintly designed headboard

The multicolored curtains filters the evening sun to light up the otherwise plain cream color walls with rays in different spectrum. The room also comes with carpeted floor, the standard TV/DVD player, and a mini fridge. The toilet is converted from a stair well, with the shower affixed where you typically have a 90 degree turn as you go up the stairs.

This room was simpler, less busy, slightly more conventional, but yet unique in its own way. It would have been a big eye opener though, if we did not choose 202 as our first choice.

a smooch on the cheek

The rooms at Reflections are priced at 2250 to 2750 Baht per night, and you can typically ask for a discount (we got 20% off) during off peak season and if you stay over a certain number of nights. There are also a DVD library you can pick movies from (we spent so much time trying to decide what movie to watch), and plenty of street foods just right outside the hotel itself which I will write about very soon.

The hotel is located at Pradiphat street, just some 3km from Chatuchak. It runs a free tuk-tuk service to the nearest BTS station (Saphan Khwai, 7 stops from Siam Central) and Chatuchak weekend market. The hotel staffs were all very friendly and attentive; with it’s unique design as well as convenient location, the entire experience was better than anything I had expected.

We definitely plan to return to Reflections and try the other rooms in the future.

Tags:  bangkok,  hotel,  reflections

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »

Being a pair of very somewhat clueless travelers, we had forgotten about the existence of Siam Ocean World until a discount coupon was given to us upon purchasing the tickets for “The Confessions of a Shopaholic”, the movie Mell suggested we watch (which actually turned out to be good)

Well, I was the president of Aquarium Society back in high school, held an annual membership at the Newport Aquarium in Greater Cincinnati, visited the Shedd Aquarium at Chicago, as well as our very own Aquaria at KLCC. So it was natural that I shall not miss out this place, touted as the best indoor aquarium in South East Asia.

Mell walking with the sharks

While the KLCC Aquaria’s entrance fee is RM 38 (foreigner) and RM 28 (myKard holder), the tickets for this place is a lot steeper. 850 baht for adult, and 650 baht for children, which is about 3 times more expensive than Aquaria, but similarly the place is about 3 times bigger, so it was all good. Our discount was something like 30% for one of the tickets if I remember correctly.

this is like a whack-a-mole eel, you go closer, they go into hiding

Other than the usual touring the exhibits like we do, there are several other activities offered at this place, and the most interesting one would be Dive with the Sharks, as in, you get to dive for 30 minutes inside the tank with an instructor and be among the sharks (the docile yet fierce looking Sand Tiger Sharks). I think this is something I should perhaps plan to do in the next visit. If I remember correctly, that costs about 4-5000 baht.

the prawn, the salamander, and the very cute mantis prawn with x_x eyes

The other interesting activity at Siam Ocean World is the Ocean Walker. Basically you suit up and put a glass helmet over your head and walks for 15 minutes on the sandy bottom in one of the giant tanks (which doesn’t house the sharks I believe. It could be a very interesting experience especially for non-swimmers.

And for the less adventurous, there’s also the Glass Bottom Boat for a different perspective in looking at the fishes. We did not take up any of those extra activities though.

otter and some giant rodents too

The aquarium is separated into quite a few sections over 2 basement levels in Siam Paragon Mall. Right after the entrance was the “Weird and Wonderful” section with many interesting creatures such as the “whack-a-mole” eels. Next is the “Living Ocean”, and then “Rain Forest”, “Rocky Shore”, “Sea Jellies”, and “Open Ocean”, you can find out what is exhibiting at which zone on their website.

mell with arapaima gigas, the biggest fresh water fish

The variety of creatures are quite big. Fresh water giants like Arapaima Gigas to the normal aquarium fishes you find at homes. There are also jelly fish, sea horses, mantis shrimps, sharks, sting rays, red snappers, grouper fish, eels, and more.

There are also star fish, horseshoe crabs, salamanders, giant rodents, otters, turtles, and even penguins. I think the only major type of sea creature I did not see in there was living octopus, squid, and cuttle fish. But they made it up with samples of preserved deep ocean creatures though.

in another day, we would have eaten the sting ray

It was a pretty interesting experience despite the price being a little steep. I think the next aquarium I’ll be going could very well be the Melbourne Aquarium

Tags:  aquarium,  bangkok,  mellissa,  siam paragon,  Travel

Posted by KY | 29 Comments »