Bangkok for Chinese New Year 2013

9-12 February 2013

This is a very late post but still want to note down my trip to Bangkok with my family for Chinese new year this year. We flew by SQ and as usual, I loved the food onboard. For our hotel, we stayed at Ten Face. This hotel is amazing I must say. It is HUGE. Abit too big for 2 people per room. I really really loved the room!

http://www.tenfacebangkok.com/

Pardon the ugly nails

The living area

The room

Pantry

The room is good, the price is ok for the size but the location is a bit off. However because it is not near the main road or train station, they offer a free tuk tuk ride from the hotel to the train station.

The tuk tuk from the hotel

I believe that most people who have been to bangkok have tried the wanton mee at the stall that I showed below. The stall is usually filled with foreigners and not locals. The portion is pretty small to so I would suggest that big eaters should order more than 1 bowl. Their braised meat is not too bad too. This shop is located in the street between Glow Hotel and Pratunam Market (opposite Platinum mall). Talking about wanton mee, I personally find the one in JJmarket better.

Chef at the wanton mee stall

Braised meat

Wanton mee

Another place that we visited during our trip there was Mr Jones Orphanage.

Address: Ground floor, Seen Space Soi Thong Lor Soi 13, off Sukhumvit Soi 55 Rd., Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110 Thailand

This is a really nice a cozy brunch dessert place. Do note that at peak hours, the place can get pretty crowded. There are 2 levels in this cafe. For tall people, it is not recommended for them to head to the 2nd level as the ceiling of the 2nd level is very low. For people who would like to take pictures, do take the 1st level because the 2nd level has very bad lighting. Their Kitkat/M&M cake is good but might be abit too sweet for some. The red velvet cake is pretty good too.

 

Level 2

Located in the same building as Mr Jones Orphanage is Roast cafe.

This place serves good coffee and eggs Benedict. It is a good place to sit/ relax and read a book.

So we visited the usual shopping places like Platinum mall, JJmarket, Rod Fai night market, Pratunam market, Supermarket, Naraya etc. I only head to JJ market for their accessories now as the things there are not cheap. They sell really nice and unique accessories.

Quail eggs from platinum mall

walking to JJ market

Rod Fai night market is worth a visit as it has lots of vintage items around for sale. There are also alot of food available there. The atmosphere is really nice there with many pubs around.

There are still many interesting and nice places to visit in Bangkok. Till the next time!

Tokyo 2013 (Day 3 and 4)

For the 3rd day, we went on a tour to Lake kawaguchi.
To get there, we took the Keio highway bus from Shinjuku to kawaguchiko. From Kawaguchiko, we bought the day pass for the loop bus that goes around lake kawaguchi.

Our first destination upon reaching Kawaguchi is to head to Chureito Pagoda. To get to the Pagoda, we had to take a train to Shimo-Yoshida and walk from there.

Shimoyoshida station

Mummy <3

It was about 15 minutes walk away from the train station.

Scary flight of stairs up to the Pagoda

View of Mount Fuji from the Pagoda

The walk up the stairs was alittle too much for my mum so only my dad and I managed to get up. The view was magnificant. It would have been better if the cherry blossoms in this already bloomed. A view with Mount Fuji, Chureito Pagoda and Sakuras would have been really awesome. We were really blessed with good weather that we could see Mount Fuji as my relatives were not able to see it when they went there.

This was at around 11am. After we took the train and returned to kawaguchi station, the clouds came and were no could no longer see mount fuji anymore. The places that I planned to visit around lake kawaguchi were best to view mount fuji and sakuras but since we could no longer see mount fuji, we went to do some shopping and lunch around the area. I bought the blueberry cheesecake flavour kit kat from that area. It can also be found at the airport.

Blueberry cheesecake flavoured Kit Kat

For the 4th day, we headed to Disneysea. That was the coldest day of the trip that came with rain and strong winds :X It was also the wrong time to head to disneysea as it was their spring break and everyone was there! The last time I was there, there was no crowd at all. We had to queue 4 hours for a ride :(

Look at the crowd!

The night parade

 We left after the night parade and had dinner at the shopping mall at Maihama station. We randomly walked into a restaurant and we were in for a surprise! The food was really good :D

Soba <3

Rice with crab meat toppings

 It was a cold and tiring day. Ending of with a good dinner felt really heart warming :)

The start of my Braces journey

I have finally made up my mine to get braces done after many years of consideration. Saw a couple of my friends getting their braces and their journey seemed so short and easy. Thought that mine might be the same but oh well, different people have different problems.

Went for my first consultation on 18 April 2013 where they got a mould of my teeth, did Xrays and inserted separators (spacers) between my teeth to make space for the metal rings. The separators felt ok for the first few hours but after which, it hurt so bad! I could not eat anything the next day because every bite that I took was so painful. My teeth felt so weak. I was so helpless because it hurts to even bite on soft fries.

Was quite afraid when the dentist told me that I had to remove a wisdom tooth and also do a filling. I also had to get palatal expanders because my upper teeth was too narrow to cover my bottom jaw. I was afraid of pain and discomfort because the separators already hurt like mad. Kept googling on wisdom tooth removal and also palatal expanders. The more I searched online, the more frightened I got :X

To get the palatal expanders, after a week of putting on the separators, the dentist have to take a mold of my upper teeth with the metal rings to make the expanders. After the mold was taken, the separators were inserted back in. The expanders will be ready in 10 days (7 May 2013). My braces and expanders will be up on the same day. All the horror stories that I have read online about palatal expanders are killing me! Anyone who has done it has any advice for me? I'm just hoping that it will not be on for too long as it will affect the way I speak :(

Got my wisdom tooth and filling done yesterday (27 April 2013). To be honest, I was REALLY REALLY scared and nervous because I don't think my pain tolerance is that good. I went to 'The Oral Maxillofacial practice' at Mount elizabeth hospital for this. The total of S$1215 for wisdom tooth removal can be claimed via my medisave so phew! Filling was a separate S$74.90. My nervousness was soothed by the friendliness of the doctors and nurses there! I was really really impressed I must say. They have the friendliest doctors I have ever met.

I removed the tooth on the bottom right. The one on the top right was not affecting me yet so it remained.

The first doctor that I met gave me an initial analysis and explanation of what was going to happen. He could sense my fear/ anxiety and he kept ensuring me that it's all going to be alright. He did the local anesthetics jab for me which was painless as he applied a numbing gel before that. Next up was the filling. This female doctor was also so so so nice! This was the easiest filling I have done because I could not feel anything! Made her job much easier also because I could not feel the pain  :P
The last doctor that I met was to remove my wisdom tooth. I have to make a note not to wear shorts and slippers there next time and it was really cold. I wonder why doctors like to talk to their patients in the middle of a dental surgery. Don't they realise that I can't reply because you are working on my mouth? The scariest part of this surgery is the drilling and also knowing what was happening.
After the surgery, my mouth stayed numb for another 5 hours. After care is really important so do follow the instructions given. It's the second day after the surgery and I'm feeling alright :) Here's a gross picture of my tooth to end off!