Dim Sum - Tim Ho Wan

About: Lunch on a day off

When: 26 Aug 2014

Where: Tim Ho Wan 3 Gateway Drive #01-13/14 Westgate, Jurong East Singapore 608532 (Next to Jurong East MRT)

Deal: Nil

Website: http://www.timhowan.com

Took a day off to rest and relax. Decided to have dim sum as Tim Ho Wan usually has a long queue on the weekends. When we arrive there was a queue, upon checking with the staff, the wait is only 10mins. So we decided to wait since it will take about that long to decide what to eat anyways.

We ordered 7 items with Chinese tea.

Lotus rice, generous ingredients but lack lotus leave fragrant ($5)

Fried Beancurd skin with pork & Shrimp. Crispy, not bad ($4) 

Pork Dumpling with Shrimp is tasty! $5

Very Big disappointment on the BBQ pork bun, so different from the HK version! $4.50

The ones I had in HK had better fillings. Can really see the pork pieces. Costed us HKD19 or about SGD3.80 (Also there is no service charge and tax in HK!!)

Pork ribs, nothing special. $4.20

Vermicelli Roll with sweet and sesame sauce. Very HK style so not a common dish to find in Singapore. Its tasty to me :p $4.20 

I'm not sure about the Osmanthus Flower Cake..... It's ok but my memory of the HK version seems better :p 

The cilli taste the same as the HK ones. I guess its hard to go wrong with chilli sauce hahaha

 The final damage for 2 person.....

Verdict: Will go other no queue Dim Sum place. Not worth the wait, the service charge and GST.

Only when I'm in HK I would be willing to queue for Tim Ho Wan

Chatuchak Weekend Market

About: Holiday at Bangkok (Shopping day 1)
When: 10 Aug 2014
Where: Chatuchak Weekend Market or Jatujak Market
By public transport: Underground MRT, Chatuchak Park (exit 1), Kamphaeng Phet (exits 1 & 2) or BTS Mo (Chit exit 1)


Armed with the map (we actually used the map a lot so I thing its best to pick up a map before going into the Chatuchak maze)  we decided to check out the cute pets in the market first ^^ It was very fun to look at puppies and kittens. There are also not so common squirrels and sugar gliders.

The pets/animals part of the market is pretty interesting. But most stalls did not allow tourist to take photos of the animals.  

Walking around the rest of the market

There are many food choices around, from western style of spanish food to very thai roast pork.

This is a bar / cafe place along the main street

 I had coconut ice cream to cool of.

 My fav roast meat stall at the market!!

 This stall sells meat by the kg :d very tasty roast pork (writing this makes me hungry now!)

There's a very hippy trendy part of the market, with seats put out by the shops. Very cooling section as most of the shop/stalls here are air-condition. But the shop are offering more designer pieces thus its not much of a bargain hunting section of the market.

We were lucky as it was a cloudy day. So it was a very enjoyable visit to the market :)

Novotel Bangkok On Siam Square Hotel

About: Bangkok stay
When: 9 -12 Aug 2014
Where: Novotel Bangkok On Siam Square Hotel (Website: http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-1031-novotel-bangkok-on-siam-square/index.shtml)
Cost: We booked direct with the hotel and cost about 2,777 THB per night include breakfast
Room: 1024 (smoking floor) then 726 (non smoking floor)

We change room on the 2nd day when there was a room with Queen size bed room on a non smoking floor available for us which was not available when we check in the night before.

The hotel is a bit dated, need a good revamp to revitalise.The location is good but I'm not really sure if it is worth the amount paid (even after discount) as there are many new hotel around Bangkok shopping area. Service in general was ok (except the not having a Queen bed room for us at checkin), housekeeping is very efficient. There is a good size pool but we didn't check it out.

The rooms are clean and just the right size for the both of us.

Room with Queen Bed

The bed is comfy and was given choice of hard or soft pillows.

Breakfast was very good, international with quality, quantity and speed of service. 

I guess part of the cost of our stay went to paying for the breakfast.

Not much I can say about Novotel Siam, so that is all.

Verdict: Maybe another hotel next time........

Holiday @ Bangkok - Thailand

About: Holiday (Short trip)
When: 9 - 12 Aug 2014
Where: Bangkok (Staying at Novotel Bangkok On Siam Square Hotel) 
The Deal: Bring a friend for free Jetstar promo (Total cost with 25kg checkin bags was $300 for 2 person), hotel deal (member's sales @ 40% off)


Just came back from a Bangkok shopping holiday, was a bit flu~y on this trip but still enjoyable overall.
DAY 1
Dinner was at a road side stall near the hotel (across Siam Paragon) . Simple yet tasty dishes,we ordered 2 stir fry and 1 tom yam and 2 drinks with total cost of 440 THB. 

Novotel Bangkok On Siam Square Hotel
Generally my experience of  Novotel Siam Square is ok except for the fact they didn't have a queen bed room for us at check in (when we actually booked a queen bed room). So housekeeping move 2 single beds together for us on a smoking level when we booked a non smoking queen bed room :(, but they manage to get us a queen room the next morning, meaning we had to pack and move :(



Evening flight to Bangkok, ok it was not a good idea to fly in the evening (note to self early afternoon flight is preferred) to as we reach Bangkok at about 9pm, by the time we reach the hotel it is almost 10pm. Not much we can do at 10pm..... :( after check in to hotel, we went out in search of dinner. 

The hotel's location is idea for those that loves to shop around the Siam area as most shopping malls are located there. I like the breakfast served here. 

View from our 2nd room

(Click here for more details of our stay)

DAY 2
Chatuchak Weekend Market 

Getting ready for the market in the morning

Be sure to get a map of the market at the police/information post. Its a big market and easy to get lost. (Click here to check out our time at the market)

Dinner is at Som Tam (a must visit when at BKK), which is also next to the hotel ^^ I'm not sure if it has moved or renovated :p it seems bigger than last year when I was here. Location is right next to Siam BTS station @ Siam Square Soi 5.

 The rice is a bit under cook

 BBQ pork shoulder

 Chili is good with the BBQ pork

 Very crispy fried fish, we can even consume some parts of its bone.

 The chicken wing still tasty the same but it seems like its was pre cooked and left out sitting for sometime before it was served to us.

Som Tam with salted egg is good combination! 

DAY 3
After breakfast 1st stop is The Erawan Shrine (our must do when at Bangkok), we stroll to the shrine from our hotel as its only 1 BTS stop away (nearest BTS station to get to the shrine is Chitlom Station) the good thing about our hotel is the location (haha).  The shrine is located by the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, at a road intersection.

View from the elevated walkway. 

After praying, off shopping again :) Didn't see any random street food stalls so had to buy 1 of my fav thai street food snack from a cafe inside central world shopping mall.

 

For double the cost and half the quantity ;( very sad~~~~~~~

Next stop NaRaYa @ central world. No photos as I was too busy shopping :p  

You can check out their location from their website: http://www.naraya.com

We found out that the street food stalls are all organised and station outside a open space outside central world under a big tent!

I love this fried veg snack!

 Cute steam buns

 The problem with having all these stalls under 1 roof is so hot inside this big tent. But its really clean, very good standard for street food.

After some food off we go shopping again :p Next stop MBK!!

After shopping, we took a break @ a bird's nest stall near MBK's food court.

Forgot how much it costed but it was the cheapest available :p

My shopping are mostly titbits from MBK!! :d

Dinner is again some where near our hotel haha our hotel's location really very central! Its a newly open mall call Siam Square One. Phutai is located on level 3 or 4 (I think) and serves Thai food. There is no tourists here and also the service staff can't speak english well as they mostly serve locals (We actually had some problems trying to communicate, meaning the food should be authentic Thai food!)  

 Nicely cook sticky rice! 

 We manage to explain to our waiter that we need to have our dishes less spicy, its still a little on the very spicy side but sooooo tasty!!

Cost us S$19.36 for so much food. I find that the food @ Phutai is much better than Somtam (except the fried items) and cheaper also. Thumbs up! Very happy tummy!

End of our day 3, so back to hotel to pack up for our morning flight back to Singapore.

 DAY 4

An early morning breakfast and off we go to the airport, the hotel airport transfer actually charge almost the same as normal taxi. So we took the hotel airport transfer, which is a BMW. Pretty cool actually :D it as a smooth and very comfy ride to the airport and we didn't need to stop at every toll station to pay cash, happy!!!

Holiday ends! Till next time~~~~