Hello World.

at 10:30 by tuk-tuk i went to baiyoke 2 building, said to be the highest hotel in the world (i don’t know if compared with hotel dubai?), the highest building in bangkok. bought the ticket for 400 baht, which entitles me to a free drink on rooftop bar.
enters the lift. wow, it’s a capsule lift with ascending view of bangkok, well, pratunam market. we got of on 77th floor.
nice view of the city! thought i was on the very top of baiyoke so made panorama view here, eventually there’s more upstairs. there’s a small bangkok museum here, with vintage photos and old-fashioned becak here, not to mention model of vintage chinatown style store facade (a mouthfull, just check out the picture.) then through other elevator, went upstair. there’s 80th floor, still with windows. climbed some stairs with the decoration of an alien and all supposedly-eerie statue, they must had planned for a museum here upstairs, because one section of the stairway which leads downstair is still closed.
upstair is way cooler. it’s a rotating platform where you can observe bangkok in all it’s 360 degree glory! i spent long time here trying to make a panoramic stitched up view, just by making series of pic standing in one spot. made it to a quicktime VR movie, go check it out!
then after my carefully plan to attend friday prayer in the embassy failed , i claimed my free drink fo a special baiyoke punch, served with popcorn, sat in one spot where i can spot my sister’s apartment. sip. sip. sip. gulp. gulp. gulp. went back down to 77th. bought some more maps. went down back to the ground.
in pratunam market i stumbled across this chinese themed t-shirt shop. bought a kind-a-print t-shirt with motifs of gecko, a red very-chinese t-shirt and a chinese kumpuk-dog pink t-shirt for gita. then i browse through the ol’ wholesale market of pratunam.
walked my way to central world plaza or isetan to make it short. it’s kind of older shopping center like hayam wuruk plaza, but like usual way more organized, and nicer, and cleaner. bought a work shirt here.
then at 3.30 went to the basement to check out the food court. after quick recommendation by monica through the cell phone, i lunched at MK restaurant, this nice franchise here in bangkok, famous with duck and steamed stuff or suki. got myself roast duck on rice, and a crab dim sum set, just to find out later in the evening, not to take everything for granted is pork-free. yum. made a walkthru through platinum, at first to restraint myself not to buy anything, only to budge to buy very cheap watched, at B95 (50% off), one for me, one for sarah. made a short visit to pantip to buy S-video to RCA cable. then went back home. whoa i heart siam.

doing tid bits of my latest project, and still waiting for an important data from my client. so until then i can do nothing. i guess the client was also caught up with end of year event. so we’ll just leave everything as it is, for now.

had lunch at home, then at 1 went out. i crossed the street through the pedestrian crossing bridge, then went to the right, along the sidewalk to siam discovery. took pictures along the way.

this was the first attempt of mine to go out by myself so i got a li’l disoriented this time. spent my time too long inside every individual shop. the shops are nice and the business really meant business. i mean even the smallest details (i.e. the decor, etc) are thought over so the customers are brought to each shop’s world.
from CD warehouse to Loft (the stationery haven,) shop by shop. then i moved along to the next building siam center through the plaza, just to realize the buildings are connected by connecting bridge. enter the siam center. here was pretty much the same. just made a quick browse throughout siam center.

then i came into the Siam Paragon. this is said to be the newest addition to the lines of mall in Bangkok. and one of the largest i might add. after i took some exterior pictures, when i entered the ground floor is the food center. lines of franchised restauraqnt like burger king, KFC, etc on one side, the food court in the middle and on the farthest side is the supermarket. i event can not see the end of the farthest side of the supermarket!

then i climbed up the escalators. there’s cars in display on every floor, and by cars i meant luxurious cars: lamborginis on the 2nd floor, etc. and on the 2nd floor there’s an entrance/exit gateway to the sywalk, which leads to the BTS station Siam.

on to the upper floor. to my amazement there’s a floor designated only for car showrooms, just like in automall in jakarta, but in this case it’s the 5th (?) floor! and may i repeat: by car i mean CAR: lamborgini, masserati, hummer, porsche, ferrari, etc!

on to the upper floor, a lot of the shops are still close. well, this mall is not yet open so i understood. the in-store LCD display i found on one of the upmost floor is in 3D, with the newest technology: no glasses required!

then i climbed down the set of escalator on the other end of the building. on the ground floor there’s this brass ensemble, playing standard songs. nice band. made it to the basement of this humongous building, theres ocean world siam. not paying any fare though, just took a glimpse of what’s the inside is all about. the fare is B45.

then through the skywalk, i exited. my tiredness said i’ll take the skytrain to ratchathewi, but my curiousness and fondness to explore new things told my feet to walk down the stairs on the other end of the street, to siam square.

then i explored siam square. siam square is pretty much the blok m version of bangkok, but way far more organized, cleaner and nicer. there’s dunkin donuts on th phra ram I, roti boy (nice franchise, although the i can’t try out the most popular buns because of the pork buns when i asked, there’s a queue for this pork bun!) made my way inside the square.

walked up to the point where i waited with my father on the sidewalk bench the other day. walked up and down the main lane, after paid my respect to the usual 6 o’clock national anthem and thai flag on the LCD display, I decided to enter A&W to eat waffle. had this packaged deal  of waffle w/ ice cream & maple syrup, root beer and curly fries. some cute chicks entered A&W as well, for the eye candy. but come to think of it, they all nice! no kidding!

then cluctching to these shopping bags, i went to Siam BTS station. go to ratchathewi, then by foot went back to my lodging.

Don Meuang Airport Hall

when i woke up all the people are gone. my folks are making last minutes shopping, my sister & in-law are in the office. then at at 10 monica came back with some durians, then my folks came. they packed their way much luggage. then after some apartment shots we all went downstaris, for sony already waiting on the car. we are going to drove my folks to the airport, they’re departing to CGK today.

after check-in, we had lunch on the 2nd floor of don muang. kangkung and black pepper beef. then i went to the lavatory and browse some books on the airport bookstore. Continue reading »

MBK view

in the morning at 9.30 me, t. jessie and bokap catch a cab and went to MBK (Mahboonkrong for those not in the know.) lots of stores haven’t been opened yet. but we started our hunt for items to buy for souvenirs or just for ourselves.

MBK is a very large shopping center that’s kind of mixed between whole-sale-ness like ITCs in Jakarta, and dedicated stores like Ratu Plaza. i had my strategy of just browsing for items, not rushing to buy things because my stay here in Bangkok is still up until Jan the 7th. so I have the chance to come back here again after serious considerations.

Hmm, Nunu was not lying. Most (not to mention all) of the girls here in Bangkok are very pretty. had it very close with this girl selling software DVD, but it’s a matter of miscommunication and culture shock, it didn’t work. not to mention I was exhausted following my parents around. they have to get the items they need, I don’t. Continue reading »

Happy Father Going To Pattaya

plan A we want to depart for pattaya at 10 so that sony can join us. but apparently sony can’t make it out of embassy duty, so we depart at 8.30, earlier. we went by a chartered microbus, driven by this thai man, can’t speak english. but monica can communicate with him. it’s obvious that he’s lost if it comes to bangkok toll highway. well. the road to pattaya mostly is the toll highway, nice and smooth. at 11 we arrived in front of hard rock hotel, we parked. we tried to look for place to pee, and enter this hard rock cafe merchandise stuff. allured to buy nice HRC Pattaya sand shirt. then i peed nearby at next door public toilet owned by one of the restaurant, for B10 fare.

Continue reading »

early morning i am woken up early by ani, my sister’s maid cleaning up the room and opeing the drapes. aargh, i moved to her usual room. my sis suggests that ani sleep on the living room while i occupy her room. and i agree cos my gadgets are scattered around the appartment.

my nap didn’t go further than 8 am, cos we have to get ready to go to chatuchak. had an early cold shower, then got prepared. we then had breakfast. after that by sony’s car we went to deliver x mas gift of lapis legit cake i brought to their colleague. then after that we went to chatuchak.

Pork Stew @Chatuchak

we parked on discovery’s parking lot. discovery is a children scientific playground and museum (i think), located at the farthest of the chatuchak, near the section of pets and aquarium.

there in chatuchak lotsa neat stuff and for less price. we take a nibble of this grilled squid street vendor. nice. there’s also this gentleman stirring a large (i mean very large) pan of deep fried pork. yum. and just by the entrance of this part of chatuchak, a nice fried critters vendor (you name the most unbelievable ones, they got it) larvae, tiny chick, bugs, crickets, etc. crispy!

Continue reading »

so here we go again, or should i say: here i go again, ‘cos like always i go solo on vacation. i had predisposition in my mind that every year i have to go abroad for vacation. or, at least: go for vacation, not necessarily abroad. started in 02 i was vacationing to singapore while attending iDN’s fresh conference. in 03 i went to hong kong due to very bargain cathay pacific ticket. in 04 i went with sammy to go diving to bali. then this year, because my sister and her husband are here in bangkok, and my parents are already here since last week, i joined them today.

after doing some crash shopping, for items titipan much more that my personal items! i went to ratu plaza and after done my biz there, i went to ps to do more shopping for things i haven’t had yet which i need for this vacation.

odd thing, while i was pondering i should have a spouse to accompany me doing this kinda stuff, there on the back of ratu plaza lot, i met *drum roll please* estira. but still i adore her, despite of everytime i met her, her style was getting less and less ‘her’. and guess what, she’s all alone too. god works in mysterious ways. i become one with the universe.

now i find myself speed-packing. luckily all can be squished into one medium suitcase. then the cab i ordered came. said goodbye to my sisters, then departed.

Continue reading »

I found a journal during my holiday visit to Bangkok, 3 years ago. That was my first visit to Bangkok, to my sister’s apartment in Petchburi Street area, behind First Hotel (Soi 11.)

My travel date was Dec 24, 05 to Jan 7, 06. I wrote my journal down in Text Edit on my Mac, and somehow haven’t
managed to publish it yet. So now I will publish it, on the exact same
day, 3 years later.

A lot of things need to be taken care of before my 11-days trip to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Besides my SYN and Tag Design stuffs, my sisters who currently lives in the two countries asked me a favor to bring them stuffs. My Bangkok sister Monica’s stuffs ranging from magazines, Holy Qur’an, CDs, children story book, and last but not least food (fish from aunt Henny.) Thank God last night Ayam Goreng Suharti was already closed when I got there, otherwise I have to deal with 3 whole fried chickens. Gita’s stuffs are her clothes, shoes and textbook/literature for her study.

I managed to get Dahon D3 Curve I ordered from Sacha’s Bike Shop, although it arrived late. I was so overwhelmed that I have so many things to pack (initially I’d like to bring the D3, but dropped the plan at last minutes. No container to carry it. It’s impossible to carry it into the Cabin, although I had the dream of biking in Bangkok.

Continue reading »