The last island escapade for us was at Batam, which is an island but not quite an island escapade since we didn’t get to go to the beach. Our past two getaway at a beach was at Bintan. First was in 2005 and the other in 2008 so by right we should have one to Bintan in 2011 right? If only we can go to Nikoi Island! The one we read about in 2008 but couldn’t go due to budget. And now, Tiger Beer is giving away a private island escapade to Nikoi Island!

Back to my dream island escapade…

Wouldn’t it be nice to laze on the sun deck chairs with cool breeze blowing on your face?

Wouldn’t it be nice to soak ourselves in the pool surrounded by greenery and peace?

Wouldn’t it be nice to take a stroll down the deck in the evening holding hands with my love one and share intimate memories?

Wouldn’t it be nice if I can do all the above without the constant beeping of incoming emails on the iPhone? Oh yes! If I get to go to Nikoi Island, I’m not going to have any time thinking about work can! Such beautiful place cannot be wasted like that. Must enjoy, chill and relax!

I guess there wouldn’t be the Indonesian dance music like the one we heard at Yasin Bungalow. Kinda missed the techno-like tune as I share this.

And look who’s ready for his getaway too! Yuniko is all set and ready for his island escapade with Tiger Beer!

Don’t forget to find out how you can win yourself and 14 friends for a 3D2N crazy time at Nikoi Island with Tiger Beer on facebook.com/TigerBeerSingapore.

While we planned this trip, we didn’t know that it was also the soft opening for Universal Studio. When we knew about it, we thought we’ll be stuck in major jam going into Sentosa. Glad that didn’t happen. Traffic was smooth and the place wasn’t as packed as we thought.

We didn’t get chance on the first day to dip into the cool pool at Siloso Beach Resort. The waterfall is enticing us to get in there quick.

And our initial plan to go on a mini-adventure with rides on the Luge and Segway wasn’t fulfilled since the sky didn’t give us the chance to. It rained the entire day while we were there. Most part of the day was spent watching cables in the room and short walk along the beach when we thought the rain stopped. But it poured shortly after we started our walk. *sobz*

Not wanting to go back to the room and watch boring cables, we took the Sentosa Express to Resort World in the late noon. That was when our exploration started! If you’d missed my previous post, check what we did at RWS that night!

With just a few hours on day 2, we woke up as early as we could, had our breakfast and met a cute friend…

Then the rest of the morning was spent in the cold cold pool.

Just a one day getaway was too too short. I want to wake up with view of the beach more often. When will our next getaway be?

Just a quick post to remember the food I had during my December 09 trip to Bangkok with family and friends...

At an old restaurant near Asia Hotel. The food is pretty good and its cheap!

At Central World. Eat all you can Shabu Shabu.

Dessert from i-Gemelli at Central World.

Lunch at Fuji Japanese Restaurant. There are 60 outlets of these in Bangkok. I was at Fuji 55, the one located on 6F of The Platinum Fashion Mall.

That’s my mini food trail during my visit to Bangkok. Perhaps I should save up for even more food trail and shopping in June or December! Wahahahaha! I <3 Bangkok!

First, let me finish sharing and recording my trip with Abang to Bandung.

On the third day, also can consider as our last, since we had to reach the airport at 11am the following day, so no shopping nor visit was possible (one day wasted lah!), we decided to pamper ourselves with a massage. Not knowing where to find, we checked with the hotel lobby and there’s brochure for Aroma Theraphy Health Beauty Spa at Bandung Trade Centre (BTC). (No I didn’t spell Theraphy wrongly. That’s the name of the shop.) Since there’s free shutter service from our hotel to BTC, we decided to go take a look see.

Bandung Trade Centre (BTC) is this big shopping mall with different types of shops selling mostly bags, clothes, home decor, accessories and food. However the things there might be priced higher than at factory outlets. BUT! You can try to bargain for cheaper price here. We spent about an hour or so walking and scanning through the shops and end up with zero purchase. So this is not a recommended spot from me. The only thing we accomplished there was the 90 minutes scrubbing massage at Rp.150,000.

The place may seem rather run down if you have a high standard to meet. But its clean and has the basic set-ups for a session of relaxation. The burning aromatherapy oil during the session added comfort to my slight discomfort. The lady massaging me wasn’t as skilled as those I experienced while in Bangkok. And when I thought nothing bad could happen lah for such session. But I was so wrong lah! When she was done with the massaging and going for the scrub, I tell you! I didn’t know how to react! The scrub was very rough and she uses her horse power to scrub my skin! I couldn’t tell her to lighten her pressure as she didn’t understand English. So I bared with the pain till she told me to turn around. That’s when I asked Abang (next to me having the same session) to translate my request. Don’t they know they shouldn’t use pressure when scrubbing? Gosh!

After the session, I asked if Abang enjoyed his massage and scrub. He said it was alright. So I guess its just my luck to have gotten the horse-power-scrubber!

Recharged and relaxed. And time to continue our haunt for factory outlets! And this is where we discovered we had wasted our entire day yesterday walking round aimlessly and ended up visiting the wrong places! I don’t have photos of the outlets we went on the third day, as we were too busy spending our remaining money and filling our shopping bags! (Find the list of recommended outlets at end of this post.) That day was our most satisfied day out during our 4D3N stay in Bandung.

With all the loots and shopping, we went back to our hotel to dump them off our shoulder before we head out for dinner. Lazy and too tired to go far, we had our dinner at a fish restaurant opposite Grand Setiabudi Hotel & Apartment.

Ikan Pesmol Cianjur sells variety of fishes, some choices of chicken and vegetables. As the name of the restaurant suggests, its specialties are their fish. So we ordered a fried fish with special chili mix, fried tahu with (i think) the same chili mix, long beans and a small plate of chili mix that tastes almost like those on our fish and tahu (which we mistook as something else when ordering). Basically that meal was like rice with sides and lots of chili mix! But I love it! Me is Spicy Queen! Dinner that night was good, but I preferred the dishes from the dinner the night before.

So that’s the end of our trip at Bandung. We left for the airport after breakfast the following morning and spent an hour there waiting for our flight. One thing to note when you’re there, remember to leave some Rp. for the Customer Service Charge at the airport!

We didn’t know that we had to pay a tax for flight back to Singapore! We thought everything was included in our AirAsia ticket price. Lucky Abang had some spare Rp. left and was just enough to pay for the two of us (Rp.75000 each). The airport is very small and the things there are very expensive! Its double or triple the price. So do all your shopping before you head to the airport. When you arrive at the airport, just go straight to check-in your luggage and get your ticket. After that, proceed up to the waiting area where there are seats and air-con.

Before boarding, don’t forget to take some shots of yourself with the plane behind you! LOL!

Okay… so here’s the part where you’ve been waiting for! Where to go in Bandung? And what to expect from there?

Ladies and gentleman! Presenting, our loots from Bandung!

Not included in photos are the two big bags of tidbits we bought. Alright lah. Not very much. We just spread them all out to make it seems like we’ve bought a lot of stuff! Wahahahaha!!! Click on the photo above for a closer look! The plastic bags above the loots are all the places we went and bought stuff from. So where are the MUST GO factory outlets in Bandung?

1. Rumah Mode
   Located at 41 Jl. Dr. Setiabudi. You can find more about this place here.
2. Heritage
   Located at 64 Jl R.E Martadinata
3. Cascade
   Located right next to Heritage. The two of them are linked.
4. The Summit
   Located at 61 Jl R.E Martadinata
5. Jalan Cihampelas

Factory outlet 1 is nearby our hotel, Grand Setiabudi Hotel & Apartment. Outlet 2 to 4 are next to one another! This is where you can shop till you drop!!! The quality of the products sold here are much better than the rest of the outlets we visited during the trip. The last place is the long stretch of road I shared about for our second day at Bandung. Buy your snacks and jeans here. For (I think) a complete list of all the factory outlets, you can find it here. You can also find some reviews of the shopping places in Bandung here.

So now that you know about these hidden locations, you can go ahead and plan for your shopping trip! Bookmark this page! You’ll never know when it will come in useful! Happy Shopping!!!

Read my other two posts about Bandung here and here.

The view from the bedroom of our junior suite. Yes, most are low raised buildings that very much resembles the bungalow estates around Singapore, just not as well maintained and organised.

Our stay comes with free daily breakfast at the hotel’s cafe. Variety differs slightly everyday with the standard egg station, variety of bread, cereals, salad, fruit and porridge. The change daily ranges from the type of fried rice, noodles/ bee hoon, vegetables, meat and a soupy item. Our favorite has to be the baby-food-liked-porridge. Thick and sticky. Mixed with the choice of sides, some dark soya sauce and pepper. Its heavenly breakfast. Especially for us whom usually skipped it when we’re here in Singapore. Three days of porridge for breakfast surely added some weight on me. Good thing I’m back to my before trip weight now after my 3 days of salad diet.

After breakfast, we asked the reception where is a good place to head to as it was before 11am. She suggested we cab down to Paris Van Java and said there’s plenty of shopping there. Not knowing what to expect, we took the Blue Bird cab to Paris Van Java. (Yes! The cab company is called Blue Bird. This is the most reliable and newer fleet of cabs there. They always charge by the meter reading. Some other older cabs are either too dirty and worn out or the driver may not charge by the meter. So go with Blue Bird cabs when you’re in Bandung.)

Arriving at the place, we see familiar brands like Daiso (selling more than $2/item there), Carrefour, Mango, Sogo, Niki, Rip Curl and many other branded boutique. First thought that came to mind was “wrong destination to start of the day”. For Abang and myself, we are the budget type of tourists. When we go to a place to shop, we usually will not buy anything that’s of the same pricing in Singapore. No point right? Add on to the luggage weight only. When we travel, we usually try to find quality things at lowest prices possible. Hence the 2 hours there were mostly waiting for shops to open, visit to carrefour, their toilets and few smaller shops that sells cute little stuff. When all the shops are opened for business, that’s when we left the place.

This was also when we started to navigate the rest of the day on our own with the not-so-helpful map. Road signs were not easy to spot and the traffic and hot sun added to our tiredness. I wore the worst pair of shoes ever for the trip! The flats were so thin I could feel every stone I stepped! So remember to wear comfortable and good soled shoes! I cannot remember how far or long we took to reached the next factory outlet. But when we finally spotted it, I couldn’t wait to get in there to find a fan and rest.

The first factory outlet, spotted has got banners hanging outside with giant python and animals. Looks like an animal kingdom or sort. Without pay much attention to what they have in store, we just headed in and the inside caught us both by surprise. There was an aquarium, mini garden and an enclosed mini zoo with huge iguana and really a giant python! There were even reindeer and goats. I think the place is call Cihampelas Place or something like that.

Felt pity for those animals chained up as they’ve the ability to smash out the enclosed glass and might injured visitors. Their movement is constraint by the designated circumference. Only the white monkey and chickens were allowed to roam freely within the enclosure.

Nothing much bought here except a pair of sandals for me to change and quick bite and drinks. The minced chicken with beef balls noodle is not bad. It was served with a few bottles of sauces for us to mix. Don’t know what they were, we just whacked and lucky us, we got the mixture right. For me I don’t like the beef ball, the beefy smell just turned me off.

Further down the left side of this factory outlet, along Cihampelas Street, you will find a street that resembles our local Far East Plaza but now outdoor. This is one of the most visited places for tourists I guess as its famous for the super heroes themed shops along both sides of the street. You can spot Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Wolverine, Aladdine and even Rainbow. And they all sell the same things! Jeans, polo t-shirts and more jeans! I’m totally clueless too why they’ve to use these super heroes as mascot for their shops. Perhaps its just some gimmick to draw tourists for photo opportunities.

Along this street you can also find shops selling local snacks such as banana chips, vegetable chips and whatever type of chips they offer. Those sold along the street (not in shop) usually are cheaper but may not be as fresh cause those in the shop are freshly made and packed when you want to purchase. So don’t forget to grab your tidbits here if you (like us) like to share some goodies with people back home wherever you travel to.

After walking for the entire afternoon, without a single sit down break, we tried searching on foot for our next factory outlet destination. After almost an hour of the-blind-leading-the-blind, we gave up and took a cab instead. We’d wanted to try their public transport, the Angkot, similar to a mini-bus where they’ve got their own designated route which we couldn’t tell the difference as there wasn’t any number, directions nor route indicated on the Angkot. Whenever you hear a horn from behind while walking along the road, it’ll surely be one of these Angkot. That’s how they pick-up their passengers. As described by Arfah, “the driver usually will try to fit in as many passengers as possible.”

We ended our long afternoon walk under the hot sun at Holiday Inn hotel lobby for a drink and to rest our feet. This was where Abang started a long conversation with one of the friendly staff at Holiday Inn on the history of Bandung and the four statues displayed in the lobby. Conversation was in Malay. And this reminds me of any tips – Bring along someone who speaks Malay to Bandung. You can hardly find anyone who can converse in English, if yes, its very basic and eventually conversation will turn into Malay again.

After enough rest, we continued walking towards more factory outlets around Holiday Inn. Yes!!! Bandung is flooded with factory outlets around every street and corner! I cannot remember the names of those we entered, as they were of little interests to me. Its either they sell identical things in all or the quality is not comparable to those we saw the night before.

Our day of factory outlet hunting ended with dinner at Dago Panyawangan. This wasn’t our plan for dinner. But because we stood outside this restaurant for very long trying to hail a cab and failed. So we decided to just go in for dinner and later get the staff there to help us. And we didn’t regret doing that! The food was cheap and good! Love the creamy fried tofu that was served with crispy cramps or was those cereals? I cannot remember! LOL! Anyway, it was good lah! The serving may look unappetizing, but for its price, I give this place a 3.5 out of 5.

So that’s all for our second day of adventure. Just another post to go for our trip to Bandung. In the next post, I will sure the MUST GO factory outlets and the whole bed of loots we bought! Ho! Ho! Ho! Come back again in a few days time. Will try to get that up soon!

Oh! Forgot to mention that you can click on the above photos for a larger preview. Photos in the above post taken with the Canon IXUS 110IS which I borrowed from Ogilvy and Canon for a test drive.

So where the hell is Bandung and what’s there that attracted us to give this little known place a visit? Before I start telling you more, here’s me and Abang at Singapore Terminal 1 waiting for our AirAsia plane. By the way, that’s the only way you can get to Bandung direct from Singapore. (Note: All images can be clicked to view larger format if you want to.)

Bandung is like a small rural city where you find treasures in many bungalow-type-shops along uneven roads with non-stop flowing traffic no matter what time of the day it is. I was even told not to blog about this city as those who know about it are afraid that it’ll become too commercialize for tourists and the treasures will disappear too fast or they’ll increase their prices for their products. But!!! I am Claudia wor! Good thing how can don’t share with you all! And when we tried to do some research of the place, the posts I found were all not very helpful leh. Even their unofficial “official” website is built on GeoCities! *facepalm* So I am going to make sure this post will be filled with information and the what’s and the where’s to check out when you are there! But hor! I must say first, I only explored a part of Bandung, there are lots more which I didn’t have time to check out, like the volcanoes, forests and mountains. If you want to find out about them, try this, this or this.

The hotel we stayed was the Grand Setiabudi Hotel & Apartment. We booked a Junior Suite from Agoda as that was the smallest and cheapest available when we were making the booking. This hotel is reasonable priced and is near by a few popular treasure hunting grounds.

Dinner for our first day was at this Japanese restaurant some 5-mins walk from our hotel. Hoka Hoka Bento, the two mascot at the entrance were what attracted us to step in and give it a try! Food is so-so, if you have kids, this is a place to go for meal as they’ve a playhouse in there. Other than that, the Japanese food isn’t something I will want to eat a second time if I should go to Bandung again.

One of the treasure finding place near Grand Setiabudi Hotel is Rumah Mode. You should be able to spot the big purple sign along the street after a 15-minutes walk after turning-left at the exit of the hotel. My first impression was shocked. Hiding inside this place house a couple of cafes and eating places. And of course, there’s Rumah Mode Factory Outlet. No phototaking allowed in the shop, hence I’ll try to describe it. Picture a huge single story bungalow with many big living rooms. Decorated with dark brown wooden shelves, tables and cupboards with lots of designer labeled clothes on display. No aircon and packed with many shoppers. Yap! No aircon! Because the temperature outdoor is cool and windy at night. But in the day, the sun can get quite nasty but the air is still cool. Shopping at these factory outlet, the feeling is like stepping out of our local shopping mall into the hot sunny outdoor. There, I would rather stay outdoor than go into.

Like all other Factory Outlet, common brands you will see are Esprit, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Hugo, Nike and many others. Find lots of clothes and accessories for the men, women and kids. If you love jeans, Bandung factory outlet is the place!!! And they’ve got very good range of men’s shirt and polo tops too. I wish I was a man when I saw the varieties and the price tag! OMFG! Why so cheap? All good quality ones leh! But be careful as some might have little defects and hence they’re at factory outlet. So check carefully before paying.

On the first night, we visited a couple more factory outlets around Rumah Mode. Namely Mode Plus, Natural and Donatello. Mode Plus is smaller than Rumah Mode and less crowded. There are few smaller young and hip shops on the second floor worth checking out if you’re age between 16 to 24 or likes unique designs and colors. Natural doesn’t sell naturally made products. Its just another factory outlet. If you’ve no time, don’t bother. And if you’re into shoes and bags, Donatello sells their inhouse brand shoes and bags. Can go see see.

After all the shopping and walking and climbing up the steep slope towards our hotel, we spotted Dunkin’ Donuts sign calling us! And in the above montage, few other signs we saw as we walked towards the donuts calling!

That ended our first night in Bandung. It was the 2nd most products purchased trip during our 3 days there.

More about day 2 and 3 in another post. Else this entry will be extra long lah! My initial idea of just sharing the photos with you failed. I can’t help but write about the experience too! More good stuff to come! So don’t forget to come back!

Photos in the above post taken with the Canon IXUS 110IS which I borrowed from Ogilvy and Canon for a test drive.

As the title tells, in this post, the shopaholic me is coming out of the closet! Yes! I love to shop! I categorize myself into two types of shopaholic. I can be a practical shopper (buying with a list in mind) or I can be an impulse shopper (buying because I feel like it). Good thing I am now more of a practical shopper than I used to. Most things I buy these days are either planned or there was some form of thinking process before I make a purchase. Let’s get to the point… Diana and I shopped till we drop in Bangkok! Where else better to do this than in the infamous Chatuchak Weekend Market!

When we entered Chatuchak market, the shops that greeted us were not the same as how I remembered. They’ve improved the quality of shops and there are so much more varieties now. I am impressed! There’s a part of the market where they have young designers and modern stuff displayed very nicely in these shops.

I bought quite a few T-shirts from this stall. Quality is good! Less than S$10 each.

Diana cannot resists fondling the sleeping pup! So adorable right?

Few interesting finds I shot from that day…

Some of the things I bought from the shopping trip around Chatuchak Market…

After whole day of shopping in Bangkok, nothing beats a soothing massage! And Diana discovered this super cool, comfy and cheap place near our hotel! Can’t recall the name already, but its reachable from an overhead bridge near Tango Vibrant Living Place. Some photos for your reference…

Am ending this post with a photo slideshow of our adventure. There are just too many photos from our 4D3N trip to Bangkok. This slideshow will share all of the can-make-it-and-show-photos. Enjoy!

Click here to view photos taken with Canon EOS 500D

I hope to also take this opportunity to plan for the future ahead. I want to start my 28th year with a big bang! Yap! Will be 28th in a couple of weeks time! Old already!! 2 more years and I’ll hit my next big 0!

I’ve got a lot of backlog to post but all will have to wait till I’m back! For now, I’ve got a video to share… see how clear the videos are on AMOLED! Beau-ti-ful!

Check out this Jet! Video taken with Canon IXUS 110IS. Am liking the HD video recording and its compact size! Bringing it with me for my trip! Foresee taking more videos than photos over the next four days!

Adios! for now. Be back on Friday!

If you think you are ready to take up the mouth-watering challenge, click away!

Food from Day 1

Dinner at a seafood place next to Tango Vibrant Living Place Hotel…

Prawn Paste Fried Rice and Tom Yum Seafood Soup
How do you think the above tasted just looking at them from those shots? Good right? Well, actually its just so-so. Nothing that impressed me. Taste simple and a little too bland for my liking.

Our almost daily supper from along the street near our hotel…

Egg and banana prata with milk and sugar
This I must say was the best find during our 5 day trip in Bangkok. The lady selling this is very nice too. There was one night, after our naked massage together, we rushed to the stall and she was already packing up. Recognising both of us, she took out her packed ingredients and made three pratas for these two hungry souls.

The prata is cooked to the right crispiness and thickness, and the banana she added was the whole thing! Not just bits of it. Every bite into the prata will have steamy hot melted banana flowing out from the side of my lip lah! Just thinking about it makes me hungry! This I hope will always be there when we return in December!

Food from Day 2

Breakfast at the hotel cafe (Free inclusive with hotel room booking)

Being a small hotel, the serving of breakfast is not as extravagant. Simple American breakfast with choice of egg, ham and sausages with cut fruits. Than there’s the self-served cooked food with rice, and also some selection of bread and tarts. And of course, there’s the coffee, tea and me juices.

Lunch at Barcamp Bangkok 3

Packed lunch – minced chicken with long beans and bottled drink

I like how they packed the food for everyone. The queue moved much faster and there’s equal serving for everyone. For bigger conferences or events, this is a more effective way of providing food rather than queuing for buffet spread, which at times, late comers only get to eat the salads or desserts.

And surprisingly, the minced chicken with long beans was actually quite good.

Dinner at Sakura Japanese Restaurant inside Central World

Both of us ordered the same bento set which came served with Chawamushi, salad, rice, cod fish and cut oranges. The cod fish was cooked just right, texture of the fish was firm yet soft. Sauce blended well with the fish. Everything else in the set tasted very good too. Guess we were both very hungry as we waited quite a while for our food to be served. After I snapped the photos, we just stuff ourselves with everything in front of us and no word was exchanged until the last grain of rice was cleared off our bowl. (Imagine two hungry and tired women digging into the food.)

Food from Day 3

At Chatuchak Weekend Market

Stick Only – White Malt

That’s it! Our lunch for that day! We were too engrossed with the shopping that we skipped lunch and only bought this to fill our tummy when we realised it was already time for tea. It tasted very much like donuts with white malt filling but without the malt taste. For 50cents a stick, I aren’t complaining much. (WHAT?!?!?! We only spent 50cent for lunch and tea that day?! OMG!)

Dinner along Chinatown area

My first time visiting Chinatown in Bangkok. The previous times I was there, I didn’t even know this street existed lah! Thanks Diana for showing me around! She’s the Bangkok queen I tell you!!! Shopping, Eating, Shopping, Massage, Shopping, Massage, Eating…. yah, I think you get what I mean. *winks*

Yummy shui gui from the roadside! The chai poh is big and crunchy! Blends oh-so-well with the soft yet firm shui gui. Cannot find the exact same one here in Singapore leh!! Auntie! Can you come here set up a stall or not? I can eat these everyday! Our no. 2 best find in Bangkok street food!

Along the roadside too, we sat down for roasted duck noodles and coke in glass bottle! We weren’t allowed to take home the coke bottle. But after that Diana went to the shop near our hotel and bought us each a pair to bring home! So nice!

The serving of duck noodle was quite small. We cleared the bowl within few minutes. Good thing serving was small, caused Diana has got more plans for dinner that night!

Diana said we must try the sharkfin soup and birdnest while we’re there. So we headed in to one of the restaurant right after we gobbled down the tiny bowl of duck noodles.

The above picture is totally random, we didn’t eat any of these as we both hate spring onions, but I find the photo very nice lah. Look like grass tubes or fancy looking straws right? People around must be wondering what the hell this woman was doing shooting non-stop at a bunch of spring onions lah! LOL!

The sharkfin soup was not bad. Each of us had two servings from this small pot.

I also ordered fried squid. The first bite was alright, but if it was slightly more crunchy, I would have enjoyed finishing up the entire plate more. But by the time I had my fourth piece, my mouth was pretty tired from the chewing.

For review of the bird nest, you’ve got to check with Diana. I was too filled up already and couldn’t slot in any more even if its bird nest!

Food on Day 4

We skipped breakfast so that we could stay in bed longer to charge our battery for the long day ahead. Before we started on another round of madness shopping, we head over to Plantinum Food Center for lunch. They also have this prepaid card where you can use to make purchases. We each got a 150 baht card and spent every single cent for lunch! Let’s take a look at what we had for a total of 300 baht.

And check out the number of dishes the two of us bought for lunch! We cleared both our 150 baht card! But seriously, neither of these dishes excited me a single bit. I think the street food tasted better than the food center ones. Quite sad lah. So no comments, just look at the nice photos I took of the not so nice food…

After lunch, we went on our shopping spree within Platinum. Will share more about this in my shopping post! Let’s carry on with what we had for the rest of the day…

At basement of Platinum, Diana bought more desserts! This was what she got me…

Before we head back to our hotel, we decided to pay our long lost friend a visit.

Diana bought Waffle with ice-cream and chocolate sauce…

I had curly fries and chicken strips.

And not forgetting the super thick glass mug of A&W rootbeer which we both ordered. Shiokness!!

And with that, I end my food whoring post. There’s no day 5 shot because breakfast was the same from our hotel cafe and our lunch was Burger King at the airport. No photo was taken of the food too as I was too tired after the 5 days at Bangkok.

Hope your keyboard is not wet now. Don’t forget to clean off those saliva before you walk away from your desk k!

Click here to view photos taken with Canon EOS 500D

As we’re traveling on a tight budget (and wanting to save more for our shopping there), we did quick math and booked a combination with the cheapest flight possible and most cost effective hotel. Saw Charline’s post on her recent trip to Bangkok and the hotel she stayed seems modern and cosy, and the price is so cheap!

Here’s our combo for our 5D4N trip to Bangkok:

• Flight on Tiger Airways $10 for return trip
  SG -> BKK $0 each
  BKK -> SG $10 each
  Taxes and surcharge $210
  Luggage surcharge $20 (15kg for me) + $70 (25kg for Diana)
  Taxes $20
  Total for flight $340 (for 2 pax)
• 5D4N stay at Tango Vibrant Living Place Hotel booked via Agoda.com
  SGD45/ night/ room
  Total for hotel $218.02
• Grand Total for 5D2N is $558.02 for 2 pax

The hotel is new, cosy, clean and very secured. You will need to scan the hotel access card when entering the hotel, and on every level you will also need to scan the card to enter the room corridor. The hotel room is modern and has all the necessary things. Although we requested for two single beds, we were still given a double bed room. If I’m not wrong, the two single beds room is bigger and hence more expensive, at $54 per night. The bed was comfortable to sleep on and clean. Pillows were quite comfy too. We love the hotel very much and have set Tango as our default hotel in Bangkok when we return for future trips. Unless they increase their prices or we discover an even better and cheaper one in the future.

The only setback about the hotel is the costly wifi internet connection which we cannot live without. At 150 baht per hour or 600 baht for unlimited access within a day, we couldn’t make ourselves pay for that. We made do with the free first hour access voucher given daily. When we are lucky, we were able to get unstable free wifi from some spot in the room. Diana and I had many hair pulling moments when the wifi died on us while we were replying to emails or discussing work with clients over IM. That’s when I realised how fortunate we are back here in Singapore with unlimited high speed broadband connection. Hence I shall try not to complain too much about our connection here from now on. Oh! And there’s also a LCD TV in the room.

If you think the cheap ($45) hotel rate doesn’t come with daily breakfast, than you’re so wrong! We had our breakfast everyday (missed one as we were too lazy to wake up before 10am) at the hotel’s cafe which only opens for breakfast. There were the few selection of American set breakfast, buffet style cooked food and choice of bread and rolls.

Tango hotel is located within a narrow street in a small neighborhood (if that’s what they call it in Bangkok). Out of the four different cabs we took back to the hotel, only one of them managed to find his way to the hotel without us making a call back for direction. Next time, we should just tell them is near Diamond Hotel and hopefully the driver will know how to get into the one-way street.

Every night, Diana will go down to the street, few blocks away from the hotel, to get her supper fixed. There’s this lady selling yummy prata at only 20 baht no matter the choice of fillings! You can choose to have just the egg with prata or add banana to it too. Same price!

She will than ask if you want to add milk or sugar to the prata. For me, I like them both! *Sugar rush!* Piping hot prata for supper is the best lah! I want to eat it again!!! This is much better than some of those here in Singapore can? And where can you get a egg and banana prata with milk and sugar for less than a dollar here in Singapore?

Let’s get the serious stuff over first. What brought us to Bangkok in the first place was Barcamp Bangkok 3.

We wanted to expand our networks of friends and check out the technical and social media trends in Bangkok for work purposes. And where better to do all that then to attend a Barcamp in that city. We were hoping there will be more English speaking sessions, but this year there were a lot of Thai sessions and we were limited to just a few options.

It was great having to experience Barcamp in another country. Seeing how Barcamp Bangkok team had created such an impressive session for such a big crowd, I’m inspired! There were plenty of coffee, tea and ovaltine at every corridor where there are sessions taking place. The hot water dispensers were always topped up. There were also bottled water, packet cakes and biscuits available for all at the table. You will never get sleepy nor hungry there! Plenty of fuels to recharge all the geeks at Barcamp Bangkok!

Few points I noted from Barcamp Bangkok 3:

• Twitter is picking up in Bangkok. However there weren’t much tweets for #barcampbkk3 when I was there.
• Many people wants to know how to make money from blogging.
• Support and help from the community is very important for a successful Barcamp. Quality of sponsorship is very important too.
• @robinthailand is planning for TEDxBKK. You can follow @TEDxBKK for updates.

After my first oversea Barcamp experience, I hope to have more chances to travel around to other Barcamps too. On a sidenote, Singapore Barcamp 4 is happening soon too! Looking forward!

Ending my first post of our Bangkok trip with more photos from Barcamp Bangkok 3. More updates about the trip coming soon!

Click here to view photos taken with Canon EOS 500D