Bangkok: Where Street Food Beats Them All!

Been a loooooong time since I made an entry. For all 4 of us actually.

Since a good paddler friend of ours mentioned randomly today that she came across our blog, guess it was a sign to start this again :) So good job to me and B, and boo to Ilene and Gor.

Thinking about the million interesting things that happened over the past 6 months, and i guess one of them is Bangkok.

Went there twice in a month, one for work and the other one was for fun.

FOR WORK:

First trip ever since I joined my ad agency. Not too hectic, just an overnight thing to meet clients. But the awesome thing here is that I was able to meet up with my mom who was also there randomly for a vacation. :)

Hi Maaaaa!!!!! :)

We had 2.5 hours together - her friends dropped her off to my hotel, and we did an amazing race type of thing. Walked the whole street where Pan Pacific is and tried all the street food we found interesting.

Grilled bananas with sweet syrup

The most awesome Basmati rice ever! ate it as it is with just some thai sauce. chills...

Drinks by the street. Got iced coffee and mom got fresh lime juice.

Wasn't able to try this - don't even know what type of meat he is grilling but it 's huge!!!

Bought 6 pairs of shoes in 15min. Panic mode haha

After 1 hour of non-stop eating, we just saw a bazaar and shopped for a bit, then went back to my hotel. Mom had her usual random naps while I worked for a bit, then I had to say goodbye since I need to head off to another meeting. Bitter Sweet random meet up. But was very much thankful to see her even for a few hours :)


FOR FUN:

2nd random trip with Bernice and Ilene. We usually learn about long weekends just weeks before so again, another unplanned adventure with the girls. Our last Jakarta trip was all over the place so this time, we came prepared. Even made a PPT with all the places to visit, food to try and the best shopping places.

Mandatory group shot before the flight

Going back to our food trip, we all agree that the best Thai food we had was on the streets!!! Cheap, not sure if super clean, but man was it amazing!!! We were also very tired from walking and shopping and also hungry when we ate here - but really, these didn't affect our judgement at all!

Crepe thing with cotton candy thing (Bernice's recommendation); the most awesome sticky rice and mango; the most awesome phad thai I tried! Wasn't in our PPT to try this street stall, but I guess the best things happen by accident. :)

Ilene's quail eggs. Just interesting that they sell it sunny side up style there, but not something I would buy or eat. I just tried one, can't believe these 2 ladies ate more- getting a headache just talking about this. 

Other photos are in my camera, but too lazy to get from there.

We also visited Wine Republic, suggested by my boss. Awesome place. Very chill, good vibes, good music, nice crowd. Met Oliver there too. :)

In case you want to try it.

Cheers! Rose for all of us :)

Another interesting restaurant we visited is Cabbages and Condoms. Cool concept - Thai restaurant that promotes safe sex.

Thai Iced Tea - still don't love it as much as Ilene does.

Traditional Thai appetizer - very weird really. Some kind of leaf, where you have coconut, peanuts and other veggies inside. Taste grows on you though (I am only saying this because I suggested this dish and the 2 girls hated it haha) 

From top center: Red curry, Pandan Chicken, Black and white rice, and Phad Thai hidden in an egg wrapper. Not as awesome as the street ones we tried but was okay.

Got some condoms too of course. They don't have mints, so they give you this instead ;)

So much more to say about Bangkok. I had so much fun exploring this place especially with my bestest friends. Super crazy adventures, sometimes scary even. Good job girls. 'Til the next one :)

When Boredom Strikes - Makeup to the Rescue

Every once in a while, there's not much to do here in Singapore. And sometimes we're just too lazy to go out of the house.

Sooo...to cure our boredom, we color...our faces! (This is also mainly influenced by Bernice who is a Makeup Addict - seriously, this girl has more than 30 lipsticks, tons of makeup brushes and watches youtube makeup videos almost everyday. Amazing!)

Here are some of the experiments we've done so far:

ILENE | Very simple and beachy makeup

I did this! Woot! Notice her thicker brow. Can't see it much here but Ilene had bronzer too. Her "photoshoot" got cut short though, she had a panic attack because of some work related sh*t haha

MARIE | Queen of Hearts-ish

Bernice showed us this video copying the queen's makeup - here's what happened. They glued my bows so to cover it better with concealer (not so successful). Raised my brows, put a fake mole, and lipstick in a heart shape.

VOLDEMORT (He who shall not be named. P.S. I seriously still don't think you'll keep your anonymity with this idea haha) | Two Faced

We tried to do a split makeup for Voldemort - good girl on one side, taray look on the other.

BERNICE | Just plain evil

Goal here was to look like a crazy evil character - like an evil step mom in a Disney movie. Eyes were the emphasis, real thick shadow and pointed upwards bringing the cat eye to the next level.

Oh, i forgot to mention the nose haha a bit over the top but hey, kudos to the nose bridge effect.

BERNICE version 2 | Trying to look like a she-man with male genitalia

Our second attempt at hiding the eyebrows and I think we finally succeeded. This makeup is just plain CRAZY yet achieved the purpose of making her look like a drag queen. Lashes, shadow, plumped up lips...exaggeration is the key word here.

So, when you're bored...grab a brush and paint yourself like crazy!! Can't wait for more craazzzyyy experiments ;)

The Cookie Museum

We were supposed to enrich our minds with the cultural and artsy stuff from the Red Dot Museum or other prospect museums but we ended up satisfying our hunger for dessert only but still from a museum.. The Cookie Museum. It is located at the Esplanade Mall near where the Merlion is supposed to be but its already hidden in a hotel boo!! Thats another story.. Back to this museum..
Marie and I were passing by and we saw this plate of cookies for free taste! (our weakness) so we took one cookie each and a kind and friendly lady approached us and began talking about the origins of the cookie and asked us to come in and have a look and the rest is history.

From the outside

The place had a Victorian style/ Baroque feel so we took our seats and checked out the cool menu (I will attach a link to their website so you can see the menu as well..cool menu!

Marie and the menu

I took pictures of how the museum/tea and cookie shop looked like..

Matching but mismatched chairs

The Butt

There were a lot of special cookies for us to try.. for free!
They had over 400 flavors ever since they started 7 years ago but we just tried their best sellers:
1. Nasi Lemak- surprisingly good!! Nice pasalubong
2.Chicken Rice- comes with chili sauce
3. Watermelon (both chunky and wo chunks) - we both like the chunky one while i like both
4. Berry Lite - Marie likes this
5. Madeleine Rose - I like this
6. Arabian Mint - typical mint cookie
The staff explained that these were a very popular choice among the tourists, endorsed by the Singapore Tourism Board as one of Singapore best souvenir gifts.

The wall of $40 cookie tins

Maryjane aka Barbara suggested that we try their best seller cake which is the Baileys Irish Cream Cake and so we did and it was really yummy..moist and sweet!

@ $26.48 (tax inclusive)

We also ordered on order of tea each. Royal Apple Waltz of Marie and Antoinette's Delight (English Tea) for me. Before choosing the right tea, we had to try smell first which type of tea we want so we ended up with what I had mentioned.

Baileys, Tea or Marie?

Baileys, Tea or Me?

They had provided tea strainers as well

T strainers

Marie and her apple T @ $14.12

Me and my english T with milk and sugar @$14.12

So we took our time eating and listening to the adventures and travels of the Tea/Cookie specialists. Barbara had the pleasure of going to Venice to buy some of the masks on display here (no photo available), she told us that she even had to hand carry these because they are very fragile. She went to other parts of Europe just to buy different tea sets.! Cool job!!
We even over heard another Tea/Cookie Specialist that she went to Germany to visit a chocolate factory!! woot!! perks of her job!

All done!

The bill! (must come back for the promo)

 Outside

Marie Lee @ Cookie Museum

Ilene Kho @ Cookie Museum

Fun and inspiring tea time at the Cookie Museum with Marie Lee
Here's their website!
http://www.thecookiemuseum.com/

The Day We Said Goodbye to Manila

*Blogging - My very first entry. Feels wierd to do it. To think I'm writing about the feeling of weirdness. haha*

March 1, 2011 - WEIRD DAY for both me and Ilene as we venture off to Singapore!

Emotional day for the two of us. Didn't even say bye properly to ma when she dropped me off. Avoiding tears (Thank god for shades). Ilene had a more painful goodbye. Tears from a sister can really hit you hard (I got teary-eyed too when I saw Ivo...eep). But the drama soon got overshadowed by panic - as i didn't know I need to have the credit card I used to book my flight. Thank god for the man from PAL, who said he'll accept an MMS photo of it. Woot. Not only that, my bag was overweight by 6kg and he waved off 3kg! hahaha But I still had to pay 34USD for the remaining 3kg.

For those people who want to avoid excess baggage, try Ilene's trick - Layering. Not just layering with a jacket or cardigan. But layering your top with another top, with a bolero, and a jacket. That's not all, layer your jeans as well! wear 2 jeans at the same time Ahahaha might sound funny, but Ilene was able to manage wearing flared jeans over her skinnys hahaha (Nice!)

Jeans over jeans (An Ilene original)

Well, I on the otherhand just wore a shirt, jacket, jeans and rubber shoes (Baduy! Bulky kasi if it's in the luggage).

While waiting for our flight, I just checked Facebook and said goodbye to my loved ones. Special mention to Ching for using a different number to call me. As I would never answer a call to avoid drama. Ilene had a few phonecalls as well. Cheers to the both of us for not crying =)

And kudos again to Ilene for being extra prepared (like mommy, like daughter haha) Check out her hand carries!

Since her mom was with her, she got extra bag space! Lucky!

Bag organizer turned into a bag with her passport stuff + water bottle. I forgot mine =(

And Chex Mix we bought from Pampangga when we watched the Hot Air Balloon Festival with Gor and Aus =)

My hand carry got stuffed with my shoes and my camera. But I also stuffed a bag and hand towels in my laptop bag to save weight in my luggage (Pathetic try). Our flight was also a bit delayed so we had time to take some photos - self-timer style!

Here's me and Ilene with our own paypays - Ilene with her maarte fan and me with a foldable one with Pusong Pinoy label (courtesy of Dana). I'm also wearing a Pinoy bracelet from Moch. Haha Thanks guys for the effort of nationalism!

Happy photo #1

Happy photo #2

Goodbye Manila (You deserve a salute)

Then finally, we were called to board the plane. Hit a lot of people along the way to my seat - laptop bag + big hand carry + hand bag is too much for a girl to carry along those tiny aisles. Got the window seat, Ilene sat in the middle. While the plane was starting to move, I suddenly felt the reality that I'm really leaving Manila. WEIRD!!!!

Last view of Manila =(

Huhu

Sorry Ilene for mentioning that that's our last view of Manila - If you look closely, Ilene has genuine tears flowing on the right side of her cheek...

But then again, we have to have a happy photo - Singapore here we come!!!

PAL Plane food sucks today by the way. Ilene and I got the fish..Curry. And not the yummy Curry as Ilene said. haha Enjoyed the bread instead. Social Network played on the plane but we didn't watch it, as the headset was busted. After eating, we just took a nap. Time flies too quickly. 1:40pm-ish already.

It's already Singapore Lah!

Hello Changi Airport!

Bought our sim cards when we got here. Then we went our separate ways, our first goodbye. haha I'm near Novena and Ilene near Bugis. Took a cab, cost us around 18SGD each to get to our destinations. Had the weird feeling again in the cab. Can't believe we're really doing this. WEIRD! Anyway, I'm finally alone so I decided to go to Novena Square, the nearest mall from my brother's place. Ate at Ajisen Ramen. Costs around 8.50SGD for their Aso Ramen. It's really good compared to the ramens in Manila. I ordered their Aso Ramen - I think this is Pork haha

Wasn't able to finish their big serving so I had it for "take away" haha additional 50 cents for the paper bowl - I wonder if it's normal to bring your own lock&lock to save money.

Also had Red Milk Tea from a stall near by. Yummeh!

Visited the grocery store too! Bought breakfast stuff (Notice that I purchased the cheap ones haha) The bread's brand is Budget, the Jam's brand is Fair Price! =))

And I bought bananas too for the sake of being healthy and still having fruits (I already miss Binondo =( where there are fruit stands just beside our house)

Haven't really absorbed the idea of being here yet. But today is just the first day. More experiences to come! I'm just glad and thankful I have friends and family to make me still feel at home =)