A new me on holiday

 Hi all ,

this is the new me on holiday .

I have a new wardrobe now , my hair has grown longer , I've found a great new lipstick and eyebrow brand even though I still hate using foundation or powder .

Airpocalypse from the 23rd floor

Regular tourists will either change their plans or fly the other way but well , here I am . 

Meanwhile , the Bangkok Post casts the spotlight on Uighurs

There were rumours flying around and now this has made its way to the mainstream media.

Extremely disturbing to even entertain such thoughts as the Uighur factor has been considered before in the plane that still has not surfaced.

Personally , I hope this does not prove to be true .

Why this man is suspected to be the Bangkok bomber

Shocking isn't this ? 

Well some people think that this passport is probably a fake ( or recently produced ) . Because as you can see later below , the person in possession of it looks far younger than approaching 50 years of age .

The Bangkok blast suspect

Update :  CCTV Footage of Bangkok blast suspect

Thai police have released images of a suspect.

The pic on the right shows him with a backpack.

Another without.

As the bomb is believed to weigh around 3 kilos it does put him in a tight spot and if the authorities do nab him , he has one hell of explaining to do.

Dashcam captures Bangkok blast

Update : new footage from the Skywalk

Tourist cam on skywalk

Below are three stills from a dashcam of the moment when the blast happened.

1. Moments before

The creepy side of On Nut

The following post is what some may call purely hocus pocus , crap or bs . Yeah whatever...

On Nut is a new extension on the BTS Line in Bangkok. As I am, what some Chinese call , a little 'light' , in other words able to sense, hear and even see 'things' , not all the time but sometimes , I can tell you one thing for sure. This whole area can give tuk tuk drivers , masseurs and even me the creeps ! If you think it's ok during the day , I can assure you that this place is very ' mang '  ( a Cantonese word for haunted ) even during the day. Most people will not experience much, but I did both day and night and because of this , although this area is quite convenient , I will stay elsewhere next time . If I come on my own , I will 100 percent NOT stay here because I will probably get a heart attack . However , if you have not encountered anything spooky your whole life and wish you did , then you will want to sleep, pray and explore the whole of On Nut.

When fireworks led to destruction

Read somewhere that if one releases firecrackers in Thailand and it leads to destruction of property , like a fire for instance , yeah like the raging one below , you could get the death sentence ( or a few years behind bars )

Same goes for the giant Kong Ming or Sky lanterns. Release them anywhere near an airport and you might be executed.  Don't play play with the authorities here. 

This incident below happened on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. So many fire pickups rushed to the scene . Didn't dare get nearer as I heard one loud explosion go off and crackling from exposed wiring . The fire squad were risking their lives, seeing how close the quarters were ...after a while , thankfully someone cut off the electricity in this area so they could concentrate on putting out the fire.

Earlier on , round after round of crackers could be heard. After this incident , nobody lit up. I'm not kidding. It shows you how serious they can mean and how seriously people take the warning too.

Valentine's Cafe - Srikrung Hotel

Valentine's Cafe is the coffee house found in the very old Srikrung Hotel. Located just opposite the Hualamphong railway station , paying diners get to use the wifi for free. 

Tall koala lunch boxes - Lotte Koala's March ( Thailand )

See now, these lunch boxes can be found everywhere in Bangkok . They are quite bulky and clumsy but very cute . Comes with strap attached. There are Doraemon ones , Hello Kitty ones , Rilakkuma ones but Lotte Koala March's ones are containers you have to purchase biscuits in order to get. 

Location : Bangkok

5 signs your 3000 baht alternative taxi driver is going to do the Fast & Furious on you.

As we await Tony Jaa's appearance on 7,

I had a taste of Fast & Furious - the Hatyai edition.

By the way , I'm not making this up . Really happened to us on a return trip when all the taxis and vans were fully booked.

Here are the signs 

1. You will pay 3000 baht for the transfer and your driver might be half of Tony Jaa's size , skinny and lean. 

source : infospesial.net 

Vejpong honey

I use honey particularly when I travel , for energy and nourishment. Last year , I discovered honey in tube form, at a Turkish grocer near the Chora Church and boy did that prove to be an eye opener.

Can't recall the brand, all I can remember is a cartoon of a bee mascot on the label which somewhat resembles Capilano's from Australia . 

Kaeng Som Dhok Kae - bitter blossoms , sour soup

Had this dish in an airconditioned foodcourt because I didn't want anymore surprises. There's chicken, sawi, bitter pea eggplants etc etc, it's sour , light and very refreshing but quite spicy. While there are many variants to Kaeng Som aka Gaeng Som , this version uses flower pods called Dok Khae, hence the name. The blossoms are almost like papaya buds only bigger with longer petals. Reputed to be good for headache , vision and flu , definitely a soup with benefits.

Waiter , there ' s a frog in my tomyam soup

No doubt , Thailand is amazing . But I still can't get over the frog meat in their menu.

Sold side by side other meats and seafoods even vegies , well , one experience is enough to make me double check next time I order their streetfood.

Hawker stalls around Tesco Lotus Sukhumvit 50 ( On Nut )

Note : If you don't fancy getting picked up in a hawker centre nor having some frog meat in your bowl of tomyam, then you should really pick your dining options carefully when you come to Sukhumvit 50 after dark. 

Frogs are so popular in this locale , one vendor even offers deep fried baby frogs as a snack ! 

New to the area, I thought nothing of sitting down to a meal here. Yeah the one below. 2nd last stall from the corner.  They had a picture menu. I took that and merely pointed to what I fancied

" Gimme this one, this one and that one "

Easy. Then I took one look at the counter and almost fainted ! Huge butchered bullfrogs were placed beside all the other meats , seafoods and vegies .

Too late to back out , I pointed to the 3 rows of  beasts peeping out from the bed of vegies and told the girl

" No, no, no ! "

She merely laughed at me. 

The sausage wars at Big C

Admit it. Don't we all love sausages.

Some of you may not know this but the retail scene in Bangkok wields great influence on the Malaysian and Singaporean markets. It begins in Bangkok and spreads all the way down like wildfire.

More so in the FMCG segment. Thus what development you're seeing today in the Thai capital, might mushroom in your city within a space of one to five years time. One if it's NOT a hit and 5 if the Thais have gotten weary of the fad already. 

Right now we're seeing fierce battles fought between these 3 brands. 

1. Betagro

Fake cherry Blossom trees at the Sukhumvit MRT

A lot of today's Thai men , have gone many tones fairer . And if you know where they congregate, for us womenfolk ,  it is like men stepping into the Ukraine. There are many who are just drop dead handsome , have a very exotic aura about them , still manly, a little bit shy ( so long as they stay away from a tipple ) and can be quite abundant at popular shopping areas. No wonder they feature so prominently on Sandra Ng's HK flick 12 Golden Ducks . 

But what's that behind them ? 

Sub Zero Ice Skate - Major Cineplex

You can dump , I mean let your kids enjoy spending the entire day skating here. There are lockers , washrooms , food and water they can purchase , seating space for them to lounge or watch other kids at it but to me, the most important criteria is clean skates, unlike one horrifying place back home. By evening, the place is transformed into a skating disco complete with loud music, so teens especially, they will love this . Does the penguin look familiar ? They're probably the same operator as the one in Mutiara Damansara. Surprise, surprise. Rates almost similar too.

Breadtalk ( Thailand ) - for the love of chocolate swissrolls !

Did not garner as much attention in my 20s but now that I am in my 40s somehow I keep on getting looks from younger men even though I have zero makeup on, dress terribly casually and even have a nice round Arabian bellydancers tum thanks to all that eating.

Yeah, you're asking, what has this got to do with a freaking bakery right ? Well, another round of laser eyes pointed on my back, I turn around to face a trio in their 20s. They're embarassed that I've noticed their looking and soon they get up to leave. In their wake, I notice each one lugging a huge bag of swiss rolls. At least 50 slices in each bag. That's 3 bags altogether.

That's it. I'm going in to see what the fuss is all about. Have never seen men buy so much cake, this has got to be good.

Megabangna - massive as an airfield

Megabangna is not on most tourist brochures but it sure as hell is on your BTS map. Find Udom Sok BTS and you will definitely see the free shuttle remark. 

Locating this shuttle is the hard part, when you come down from the BTS go to where the bus stop is and wait till you see this bus. You may take other buses but those will cost you, still keep that travel mode open as an alternative option

just in case the bus is packed full.