Taste of Siam

Tourists would be familiar with Som Tum (papaya salad), Tom Yum and the likes, but the flavours familiar to the tourists are not quite as authentic as what i've sampled having lived in Thailand for 18 months now.

Having eaten authentic Southern (papaya salad originated here) and Northern Thai cuisine, i didn't quite know there is also Bangkok cuisine! Recipes that likely originated from the royal family. A rare find today, these characteristically Bangkok unique dishes can be found at Baan ('house' in Thai) Wannakowit.

                                        

Not easy to locate, Baan Wannakowit (64 Soi Damnoen Klang Tai) can be found near Khao San road. The clue to entering the right soi would be to locate the line-up of lottery ticket sellers. Baan Wannakowit is not a public restaurant, but a 100-year old private house where a catering business owner lives with her family and eats these dishes daily.

                      

Eating at Baan Wannakowit is like eating at a friend's house, as i remove my shoes to enter the home. Roaming room to room, seeing personal photos hung on the walls. There is no menu nor waiters here. With the language barrier, we ordered in faith. We had the owner bring everything she offers, as we were determined to try everything after a much tedious hunt for the place.

                       

Everything was delectable. Khanom jeen sao naam, thin rice noodles soaked with a rich coconut milk dressing and topped with chunks of pineapple, sliced shallots, garlic and ginger.

Mee Krob, golden crispy rice with a sweet and sour sauce combined with shrimp, scallions and fried toufu. Served with fresh chives and bean sprouts. We also had green pork curry with prata.

We also had rice crackers with a pork, shrimp and peanut dip called khao tung na tung.

What was really special was khao chae, an unusual porridge where you put together yourself rice, jasmine-infused water and ice cubes. Yes, you heard me right. ICE CUBES in your rice. This is a summer porridge. You then eat the porridge served with various condiments like stewed radish, sweet and salty pork floss and fried yam balls.

                       

The bill was no more than 800THB for 3 persons, including food and drinks. Highly recommended for a unique experience. Only by appointment, call +66 81922 6611 to book.

The epitome of home cooked food, found at Baan Wannakowit. 

Things to do in Singapore: Golden Mile

I've always been an advocate for the non-conventional places to go, eat and do. Getting our picture taken against a couldn't-be-more-fake backdrop and shopping for gifts in Little India couldn't be more amusing. This is probably another of those places not mentioned in any traveller's guide like Geylang.

Even I, myself only recently discovered Golden Mile to add to the cheap date ideas list. Golden Mile have always just been a location for me to board the coaches to Malaysia. Only stepping in to visit the loo before departure, i never did think it was a place i would come hang out or eat. The entire building is permeated with smells like salted fish and the floors were grubby. A huge difference from the shiny malls on Orchard Road.

Little did i know that if you want to experience Bangkok, you can do it in Golden Mile without buying an air ticket.

En-route to dinner, i pass by skimpy cladded Thai girls. I can't decide if they are working girls from the bars around or they're Singapore residents missing home.

Reeling in the sights and sounds, i hear noisy Thai chatter and animated Thai songs thumping through the KTV lounges.

My friend introduced me to New Udon Thai Food. There's nothing Japanese about it, but rather it's steamboat plus bbq in one!

Costing $21 per person, it's a novelty to see a concave steamboat. The ones along Bugis Street usually have a bowl sunken in the middle for the soup while the hot plate surrounds it. Food is cooked with electronic gas.

At Golden Mile, New Udon Thai Food is the only one offering steamboat bbq and with the concave middle where you grill food, while soup surrounds like a moat.

Lard is given to put on top, the food is cooked with charcoal beneath.

Not free flow

The ingenious bit is that as the food is cooked on the concave plate, all the juices will drip into the soup adding that extra oomph. You may cook the seafood and meat on the hot plate, and the vermicelli, egg and vegetables in the soup. 

While this may be an unconventional date idea, do note that not every girl will appreciate being taken to a meal filled with smoke that would make her hair and clothes stink.

 Ask for the Thai ice tea!

 Thereafter, take a stroll and check out what Little Thailand has to offer.

Clothes comparable to Bangkok prices. Starts at $15 for a decent dress.

I was thrilled to see Thai massages although my friend doubt they are "clean".

Missing any mobile wires? They have shops selling random stuff.

 I was amused to see "hampers" packed in a pail with goodies and toiletries inside. It costs $35 and i exclaimed a bit too loudly, "Do the Thais give this to each other as gifts?!?"

 I got corrected by the store owner that this is for praying. This "hamper" is presented as gifts to Buddha and not to men. Ignorant me!

The Thais like in Thailand are very friendly and have no problem with you taking photos.

I find the strangest things on sale.

Turning nipples pink, whitening groin areas.

 I try not to make a deduction from the numerous vanity products for naughty bits i found on sale.

Will you dare try these slimming creams?

 If you'd like to get the BBQ Steamboat thing home, you can purchase one from the supermarket on 2nd floor for $30+

But otherwise for a souvenir, you can get Lighter Babe of the Month.

I know of someone who collects Lay's flavours around the world. Here, you can find Thailand's flavour e.g. Sushi, crab, lobster

 Like in Mustafa, i chuckled to myself as i discover strange perfumes.

 Brue Lee's deodorant surprisingly smelled pretty good (i like it) and it was long lasting (my hair still smelled after a shower). For ONLY $3.90, it is MADE IN FRANCE!! Don't play play...

 I love their copy liners. No limitation, No Imitation 0_0

Comes in Be Water, Anger Blinds and Don't Think, Feel.

 HILARIOUS!

 I saw this and it reminds me of the Harajuku Lovers fragrance collection created by pop star Gwen Stefani! It also smelled pretty good except it's only $8.50 and made in China.

Harajuku lovers can be bought in departmental stores, starting from $70+

After strolling around and having a chuckle at what we find, we went back to level 1 for desert!

 As authentic as it can get! It reminds me of the food court in Platinum Mall in Bangkok.

 We settled for red ruby and mango sticky rice (my favourite) for $3+ each.  

Unlike Little India and Chinatown, stipulated by the government and the urban planners that it shall be named as that, i wonder how did Golden Mile come to become "Little Thailand". Like how did Lucky Plaza becomes Manila on Sundays or Peninsula is Mynmmar (next post coming up). Did one villager move to Singapore, set up shop in Golden Mile and started bringing more towner in? I heard that's what the Indians do at banks. Ha ha ha.

Golden Mile, due for an en bloc any time now, where will the Thais move to if it gets demolished?  Better visit now before it disappears.

As the night gets late, i spot more skimpy cladded girls appearing and i saw them taking off their cardigans and leaving them in these lockers unlocked.

Golden Mile, what a colourful sight.

Bangkok, Heaven for Shopaholics.

Aware of the flood situation in Bangkok, i went prepared with Crocs that will probably float and water-resistant material bag. Speaking of Crocs, you wouldn't believe (so did i) that they now have a lot nicer designs. It's like the ugly duckling who transformed into a swan.

Because of its prettier designs now, i felt convinced to give Crocs a chance. It turns out to be a perfect pair of wedges, especially for travel!

 It is light.

As compared to my other pair that is 1kg! No wonder we always remove our shoes when stepping onto the scale for vanity's sake.

Before i get into the highlights of my trip, let me say i will not be buying anymore group travel deals! I felt so cheated by www.atcrazy.com

The latest group buying deal website to come into the picture, it is by Asia Travels. Which i thought is credible and trust-worthy for travel deals but i was wrong.

Catching the deal sometime in Sept, i read the fine print and thought i was making the right decision. It was $228 + $180 tax = $408 per person in total. I thought that was swell seeing that we take a proper carrier and 5 star accommodation. Also, i looked up the budget airlines and flights to Bangkok over the weekends can be exceptionally expensive, as much as $300.

Making sure that the fine print includes departure dates encompassing the weekends and favourable timings, i made the purchase. As soon as the deal was open for reservations, i called in to Asia Travel. THEY TOLD ME FLIGHTS WERE FULLY BOOKED.

I said, "how can that be! I must be one of the firsts to make a reservation and it's not as if you sold 3000 deals but just 156."

Steven then told me, "weeeell, if you want to take the first flight out/ last flight back/ weekend flight, you have to pay extra."

I was extremely displeased. Then the flood happened and prices dropped etc. Long story short, travel group buy turned out to be unwise.

I could have complained to CASE but just didn't want to go through the hassle, so i didn't let that dampen my holiday mood.

Took my mum as her birthday treat.

Bangkok to most Singaporeans is food, shopping and massage. I dragged my mum to a forensics museum.

Described by an ex colleague who was a former policeman, the route to location was a fairly complicated one where you have to hop onto a bus that won't stop, jump off a moving bum boat etc.

All i did was hail a taxi from my hotel in Silom, got the bellboy to give instructions (taxi drivers are not too good with English), set the meter running and soon i arrive all under sgd 4.

Address : 2nd floor, Adulaydejvigrom Building, Siriraj Hospital, 2 Phrannok Road

Getting there : Take cab (about 30 mins from Silom Road)

Opening Hours : Mon – Sat, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Entrance Fee : 40 baht (foreigners)

 The building is amidst many buildings, the entire area is a hospital cum medical school i believe. Look out for a green sign indicating 'Museum' on the building as the taxi driver is unlikely to know exactly which building it is. This is not the usual tourist spot.

It's a pity that the text on everything was only in Thai. We could only observe and make up stories in our minds. The first hall was the most gruesome of all. Featuring deformed preserved real babies. Photos were not allowed and guards patrol the museums but i snuck in a couple. Although the thought of baby haunting did flash across my mind, i took the risk for the sake of story telling.

Having watched too much horror movies, i did not dare press my nose against the glass to examine the subjects closely. I was half expecting their eyes to flash open at me.

Then in the next hall, was like an exhibition of Faces of Death.

I did not manage to sneak pictures as the guard probably had suspicions of me and stuck close by. There were many death pictures, literally. Mostly pictures of murder victims or accident victims, here you can see photos of children crushed by machines, suicide bombers body blown to pieces, a dead body with tire marks (steamroller probably rolled over him), a victim with a severed head (train accident) and the likes. 

There were rows and rows of physical skulls, one showing how a victim's fractured skull looked like when hammered with an object, another showing a clean bullet shot in from the left but where it exits through the right, it was a hair-line crack.

It was all pretty interesting, and alot more real than graphic effects in a movie. Alas, all description was in Thai. Then, there were also jars and jars of livers, kidneys, stomachs and body parts. My mum says they look like TUR KWA (pig's liver) and makes her want to eat 猪肚 (pig's stomach). 

Well, both my mum and me happen to be Scorpios. We've dark minds.

I managed to sneak another photo and this was a preserved corpse of a rape murderer sentenced to death. Next to it was another preserved corpse who died naturally. If you look closely, there is yellow pus coming out from the rape murderer but none from the good guy. I suspect the rape murderer was sentenced to death via the electric chair thus the body reaction, explaining the pus.

You can buy postcards as souvenirs, and i can see there are many other sick people with such interests like me. They are EVEN SOLD OUT!

 While you are there, take time to explore other mini museums around. They all have NO English translations, can be rather boring but still....

They have prehistoric exhibits (basically displays lots and lots of prehistoric rocks), parasite exhibits;this was closed. I visited Tokyo's one before but there was also no English translation! :( I gave up visiting the rest when my mum complained she was bored.

Then we got "cheated" at Sam Bun Dee Seafood Restaurant, a place a taxi driver recommended. 1 curry crab (sgd 50), chill prawns (sgd 66), tom yum soup (sgd 12) and kang kong (sgd 12) with rice and 2 coconuts came up to about $200 for 2!! Way too expensive for Thailand.

We didn't think it was anything amiss because my brother who frequents Bangkok did recommend to us about Sam Bun Dee that was supposedly cheap and good. When we returned to check with him, he mentioned we went to the tourist trap with the same name!

I only had 2 full days to spend in Bangkok, despite sleeping 3 nights there (grrrrrrrr Travel Group Deal),  so it was shop shop and shop.

 I must say with that loot and 10 hours of walking on both days, my Crocs have served me well! My feet didn't ache one bit! Crocs may not have the best designs, but it has the best interests for our feet definitely.

I'm not quite sure why i'm uploading photos of my buys but i bet you would like to pry!

Spent both days at Platinum Mall, Thailand's largest wholesale center. The more pieces you buy from the same shop, you get the wholesale rate which could range from sgd 2-4 cheaper per piece. I bought accessories at $6-$8, most expensive at $20, watches at $14.

Shoes were $14-$16, with better designs and quality at $100.

If only i can fly like Superman.