Thursday, December 13, 2012

Thailand 2012: Day 3

Today's highlight is Gateway Mall

Went to see a friend, Bomm, for Lunch at Cuppa today. I didn’t know but there are two different branches. One is the original branch called Cuppa, and the other is Cuppa Deli. Bomm went to the wrong place. He drove his motorcycle and actually came to meet us super fast though. Amazing speed @_@. Truffle Pizza and the Brownie was super good!


Then after that I went to explore Gateway mall by myself in Ekamai. It’s a new japanese mall that opened up. There are Daiso and Loft there. They happened to have a “Taste of Japan” event. It was quite fun. There was a sushi chef that was slicing a 60 kg tuna and gave out samples to the people watching. They also had a sushi tasting contest where the contestants were blindfolded and had to guess what fish they are eating.


the Evening, I went to Pailin’s new shop/bar which is called the Book shop. It was opened only a few weeks ago. They are still testing out their menu so one of her friend was there to try some of the drinks. Poor Chris drank a cocktail with Kiwi in it and he’s highly allergic to Kiwi, so we had to rush him to the hospital after he started to throw up. He threw up a few more times at the hospital and the doctor gave him some medicine. We ended up being there for about 2 hours. Then we came back to my hotel room and Pailin and I had a nice girl chat slumber party type of thing haha. We ended up talking all night and went to sleep around 5:30 am.
Chris dying in the hospital

Lastly, I saw something very strange at the grocery store in the mall today. They have a body wash with gold leaves in it. It's actually not even that expensive, but the ingredient other than gold that kinda scared me is... placenta?? what???!! Seriously??

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Thailand 2012: Day 2

My favorite soft serve! Hokkaido Greentea yum!

Woke up and grabbed breakfast from Emporium buffet downstairs then explored Emporium mall a bit. Honestly, after you finish checking out all the tourist places in Thailand, there are only a few things to do here: Eat, Shop, massage!
I like that unlike American malls which tend to all be kind of the same, the malls in Thailand are very different from each others. Emporium feels more like the usual US malls with big brand name stores. There are so many cute things at B-trend in the department stores. Cute things from Korea, japan, US, and thailand. Right next to it, there is an art supply section. I was going crazy haha. The art that I see makes me want to draw, but I’d get too tired to draw by the time I get back to my room at night. I really enjoy exploring the food court though :p



Pailin and I went to meet up with Kaew and Gem at "OK Shabu" for lunch. It’s very different than "MK suki". I really like the flavor of the sauce too. It feels more like japanese Shabu shabu with more vegetables, than Thai sukiyaki. They also had this amazing Watermelon Lychee blended drink. Now that's a good combination.

Then we went to "Bann Ice" for shaved ice that is kind of like "Block Heads" in the USA. I like that they had Sala flavor, but I think the texture of the ice cream is still much better at "Blockheads" at Sawtelle in So Cal.
The girls enjoying their shaved ice.
Dinner was at a Japanese Yakiniku place with my sister and her husband. It was also super good.


They give you a bib.

This is how you grill!

Hmm I've been eating a lot of Japanese food. By the way, when I was a kid living in Thailand, there were Banana Milk by Foremost that was sooooo good. After that, I've never tried any good banana milk again. Quick made them in the U.S., but it tasted terrible. It was waay too sweet.

That said, this banana milk from hokkaido milk is actually quite good.
Hokkaido Banana Milk
but this Banana Milk from the Grocery store on the top floor of Emporium mall is even better!
Korean Banana Milk

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Thailand 2012: Day 1

First stop! Thai boat noodles from "Doong Deng Dai"

My sister's poor driver was waiting for me for 2 hours though. Anyways, I finally got to my sister's place around 4 am. Then napped for about an hour and a half. By 6am every one was up to go "Tak Baht" which is kind of like a morning offering to the monks. Thai monks walk bare feet early in the morning for their food for the day. People would line up in the morning to give them offerings including food, flowers, etc.

After that, I ate... and ate... and ate... OMG!!! I had Yentafo (pink noodle soup), Kaomungai (Hainanese chicken rice), and a lot of other stuff lol. Lunch was at "Doong Deng Dai" which is a Thai noodle house. The name is an alliteration to something bouncy which probably refers to the meatballs. They have australian imported Beef which was super tasty.
Doong Deng Dai
Spicy!! (already)

Then, we stopped by Swenson for Icecream. I love Mango Icecream from Swenson, but they only have that during the summer. boo~

Swenson

After that, I went to check in at my hotel, and took a shower. I needed that. Check out my super cool room at Emporium Suite which is directly connected to the BTS sky train.
My room



Dinner was at a japanese restaurant called Miyabi. I think the Uni and the Amaebi here tasted great. I usually don’t even like amaebi, but this place had very very good amaebi :). They had fresh wasabi! Something that's quite hard to get in the US. Yummy!

Back to the room, figured out how to call mom and got facetime to work. Then flopped.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Thailand 2012: Boarding!


Thai money always reminds me of Monopoly money. So colorful!

Decided on a last minute trip to Thailand. Well, my mom's friend who is also very dear to me contacted us saying that he will be in Thailand. He lives in Italy and usually whenever we go to Italy, we would stay at his place. He's really one of the most awesome person that I know. So my task for this trip is to take care of his group and pick up my left over plush toys for my shop.

I took EVA air for the first time this time. It's a Taiwanese airline and it is quite nice. Although since I just came from James' wedding, I've been hearing chinese for days now lol. I sat next to two young guys from US that were going to Taiwan. One lives in Arcadia and the other lives in Torrance. They were very friendly and we chatted a bit. It took about 14 hours to Taiwan. I didn't watch that many movies this time. I watched Frankenweeny, Paranorman, ooh Samurai X (Kenshin movie.. i'm such a nerd), and another Japanese movie about a dog that I thought would be like Marley and Me but it was kinda bad lol. Then I switch plane there to go to Thailand. On the new plane, I sat near an elder lady. She is Thai and was so talkative. She kept talking about her daughter. It's quite cute that she's so excited that she's about to go see her daughter. She kept saying how beautiful her daughter is and that she was an idol, but now is an air hostess and so many people were hitting on her lol. Mothers are so cute, right? She showed me pictures and her daughter is very very pretty indeed. She was a wheelchair passenger, so when we landed, I walked with her out. She told me she owns a Thai restaurant in orange county and that I should go visit her sometimes :).

Onward to my Thailand trip! woo hoo~ I can't wait to see my little Nephew <3

Reef & Polo