Jewels that dance: Bangkok 13-18May'14, Day 1

Finally, some time for the backdated Bangkok travelogue last month. It was a much anticipated holiday to get away from work and stress, and also a trip to celebrate the bf's birthday and our 28monthiversary (:

While waiting to board the plane, the busy bumble bee finishes scurries to send off his work email, while I waited patiently for him to finish so that we can take photos of the little miss and mr tattoos that I love so much(: Some things are just so simple but yet they bring so much joy, the little things in life.

Ain't they absolutely adorable <3

Don't forget to bring a pen whenever you travel. You don't know when you will need it.

After touchdown at Don Muang airport (Airasia flight), we headed straight to our hotel Centara Watergate Pavillion hotel. Surprising, the taxi fare only costed about 200baht after toll charges (going via meter charge). In the past, it seems to cost about 350baht on average.

A cosy interior lobby, and 2 chilled orange juice welcomed the start of our holiday at Centara

Can't resist snapping a few shots at this colourful lobby 'photoshoot' booth

And so did little miss sunshine

Yellow and white goodness, this is our first meal after touching down in Bangkok

We found this little store on the left of the Hotel's main entrance.

We loved how this portion is just sufficient for both of us, with a generous portion of mango slices, at only 30 baht. This kept our tummies satisfied while we scoured for a proper lunch, that kickstarted our non-stop eating cycle during this trip.

We walked towards the street that is famous for the wanton-mee, just opposite Glow Pratunam.

The bf has tried the wanton mee before, and wanted something different. And oh boy, was he in rejoice when we managed to find this 'hawker centre'. He's a street-food lover(;

This hawker centre is further down from the wanton-mee store.

Trays and trays of dishes, all displayed for you to take your pick

Fancy something more spicy?

Add your own chilli padi that is 'free for grabs' on the tables for the customers

Our first official lunch at bangkok.

Pork leg rice, economical rice- the Thailand style, and Ice milk tea.

All these for less than 100baht ~ 4SGD.

How awesome is that? The bf was really really satisfied

*rubs belly*

Slurps.

Spotted this at the entrance of the 'hawker centre'.

Fried slice banana fritters!

They look so good, but the tummies were too full to have anymore input.

Grabbed an iced coconut just around the turn of the hawker centre to quench some thirst and heat from the swealtering sun.

And now, the next most important thing for me, is to get internet connection!

You can get the 3G sim card at the airport, but we wanted to see whether there were other options in town.

We had a hard time trying to find stores that sells the sim card. 7-11 stores are out as most of them do not sell such sim cards, and will advise you to get them from mobile stores, which we did not managed to find any.

Thankfully, we managed to get it at Platinum mall, level 6, just right outside Breaktalk.

The store owner was such a gem. Not only did he helped to fix the sim card in and test for connectivity, he also taped the thailand number at the back of my phone in case I need to use it.

Network was pretty weak at that area, and he apologised profusedly while testing and restarting the phone.

He also helped us search the for more information as the bf wanted to check out some fish stores.

If there is a Best service award I can give, I'll definitely give it to him(;

Sim card

399 baht as compared to airport 499baht

7 days unlimited internet access

100baht free call time

Upon heeding the storeowner's recommendation, we headed to JJ mall (hitching a taxi from the taxi stand right outisde Platinum mall), and we were amused to see that Qian Hu has a presence here too. Fancy the bf heading all the way from Singapore, and finding himself a Singapore fish store

Wee, we love supermarket grocery window shopping!

Actual snack shopping shall resume later in the night(;

Just right outside JJ mall is chatuchak's fish area, and that started the fish search.

It was a tricky question on whether snapping photos were allowed in the vicinity, so the camera retired into the handbag.

We stopped by a macaron store for a short break, after much futile attempts to find the fish store that the bf wanted to check out

And yes, with that, the boy resumes his search of the fish store.

Green tea and cheese macarons, with ice lemon tea. It was pretty quirky,

both the drink and dessert.

Thankfully we had the free talk time from the sim card, coupled with very helpful locals that helped us call the store and enquired for directions, before translated it to English for us.

A pity that the store wasn't what the bf expected, but a huge

THANK YOU, to all the very kind people in Thailand!

You really made our stay wonderful!

In just a blink of an eye, it was already time for dinner, time for another refueling session.

We decided to give this eatery a try which was located at the same level as the food court in JJ mall

Deep fried crispy wings

Pineapple fried rice

Grilled pork shoulder. The sauce could have been done better

Ice blended coconut frappe

The dishes were all pretty normal, nothing too out of the world, but a pretty good deal for it all costed about less than 10SGD. And if you needed a place to rest your tired legs, and soak in aircon, this is the place.

It was about 8PM when we left JJ mall, and there were no meter-taxis in sight. There were cabs camping outside the mall, waiting for passengers, which also means they are unwilling to go by meter.

We managed to haggle the cab fare to about 120baht, which was pretty much the fare that costed us from Platinium mall. So don't be put off by taxi drivers asked for a flat fee, it might still be worth it(;

Our room number for the 2 nights. What a perfect number(:

Centara watergate hotel-deluxe room

And yes, finally it's time to immerse back into comfort and aircon back at our hotel.

Don't miss the bottled glass water that is encased in the leather casing.

Clean and neat toilets, that's exactly what I need for my hotel stays.

I've always taken it forgranted that all toilets have to be neat and clean for the tourists, especially since hotels are in the service industry and we, the tourists are paying a premium for a better hotel.

Read on to my next blogpost and you will understand why I have become so appreciative of clean toilets(:

Special offers for the hotel guests

Don't forget your universal charger in order to be able to charge your gadgets. Sockets are pretty scarce in the room, so if you can, bring a multi chargeable plug (;

Big clean luxurious bed <3

I have never been critical of the qualities of the beds, perhaps since most of the trips are spent in one single hotel. But during this trip, we hopped 2 hotels, and I am certain to say that after staying at Centara and my next hotel (stay tuned), I have grown to miss the quality mattress at Centara.

It really feels so so comfortable, and so luxurious for the back.

Centara, you spoil me(: