Jenius

It's been almost two decades since I've last set foot on the land of a thousand smiles even though I have to certainly admit that I don't look at all close to two decades old. My friends and I went on a short 4 days 3 night trip to Bangkok around a month back which was filled mainly with filling our stomachs. It was also that same trip where I had my first experience getting a bespoke suit tailored. You can read more about it HERE. 

It took me awhile to get to writing this post and I still have no idea what the focus really should be but i'll try to keep the haphazardness to a minimal and fill this post with appropriate visuals since I'm like a graduate now and supposedly possess a apt level or presentation.

Alright, so the first thing my friends got once they touched down in Thailand was to purchase a local pre-paid SIM card at the airport. This proved to be pretty useful as we regularly had to split our group when travelling. 

Sim card -299 baht for 7 days 4g/3g unlimited data with 1.5Gb speed limit + 100baht talk time

**TIP: Use UBER or Grab app to figure out the estimated cost of taxi trips to avoid getting hustled**

Bangkok does have a decent train system network so do take advantage of it if you're not into tiresome negotiations with taxi drivers.

Can't remember which station I took this at but the system is pretty easy to figure out.

Personal purchases

Having successfully suppressed my good looks for so long with the aid of my yellow spectacles (kinda like Kenpachi Zaraki from Bleach), I decided the world was ready to relish in a little more of my beauty. A short distance away from Platinum Mall lies PRATUNAM OPTIC (postal code 10400) where the new eyewear was purchased. The one I got made me 2500baht (around 100 sgd) weaker and I'm pretty sure there are places which carry cheaper ware but I didn't want to spend my whole trip sourcing for spectacles.

Just me draped in full Bangkok-bought clothes and spectacles

Little shopping was done by me but I managed a few simple tees which ranged from 50baht at Pratunam Mall to around 200 baht at Patpong and also a few casual shorts at around 150 baht at Pratunam Market. Honestly, do give Pratunam Market a visit for great deals and then head over to Platinum Mall for a meal if you have to. 

**TIP: Amari Hotel, the place where I made my suit, has one of the most conducive restrooms in the area.** *wink*

Our home for those few nights was Glow Trinity Silom which was tucked in a small alley. The staff and the room were great (despite a rather creepy encounter I had) but the deal could have been sweeter if they had provided toothpaste and toothbrush. Thank goodness there were a bunch of 7-Elevens everywhere where I acquired the essentials for 15baht and 20baht repectively. Do also note to bring a travel adapter for your charging devices.

**TIP: Most hotels carry a few adapters for travelers but you might not be able to get a bunch of them so bring along a multi plug and you can juice up all your devices concurrently.**

Facilities are great at this hotel.

Personally, I fancied the Wat Pho visit as it reflected a sort of rich history of culture of Thailand. The entry fee to the compound is 100Baht that included a free bottle of cold water which was a life saver given the merciless onslaught of the sun. 

The floating market trip on the other hand was rather tactless in its agenda. A member in our group had kindly helped us book a tour to the place for around 29SGD per person and I was rather excited to simply be near a water body (it's the angler blood) but there wasn't much of a tour, just a dude who told us where we're headed to. The boat ride around the rather minute floating market costs 150Baht per person paddle boat for a ride of around 15 minutes(?) and the merchandises sold were mainly aimed at the classic tourists. I was honestly rather amused by the engines used by some of the motorized boats though. They had on modified car engines (with gearbox and all still attached) to spin a propeller and pretty much used the river water in place of coolant - COOL SHIZZ (it's the technician blood). 

Engineering aside, we were then led to another 2 more locations which were included in the floating market package. One of which was aimed at people who keep pets or encourage animal captivity of any sort (yeah yeah, tell me how they're 2 entirely different things) and the other was for people who loved hard wood. My advice, visit Wat Pho twice, there's a sort of serenity and calm there (mainly because there's a small water feature filled with koi there).

Cockles and Squid Eggs(?) - Really liked these

There was a peddler selling YouTiao paired with a cup of kaya at Chinatown but I didn't manage to get a shot of it as it was all gone too soon hahaha.

Youtiao kaya - 40baht(?)

Honestly, this Padthai was very well made but I'm no culinary expert to explain how it's come to be the 2nd best Padthai in Thailand(?)

Can someone help decipher this?

Definitely one of the best street foods.

Wang Lang market - Grilled Squid - 55baht, Fishcake - 20baht

From Wang Lang market, we took a River Bus which had legitimate river bus stops all along the Chao Phraya river (I have always felt that this river sounds rather offensive). That's also where my group met with the spiciest little chili disguised as a teenage girl. The river bus conductor was fiercer than those Korean Spicy Ramen I so very much enjoy. If Singapore had one of those, we wouldn't need those silly "Nice moves. Move in a little more, can?" stickers in our buses (man, I do hate those ugly cartoon characters).

River bus - ~14baht

The mookata in Thailand is definitely worth the trip. While their selection of meats might not get you excited from the get go, the free flow of coconut flavoured ice cream really makes up for everything.

Mookata - 169baht, food wastage 169 or 209 Baht, 3L of beer 380baht

Whey to go, 7-Eleven! :)

On-the-go, however, you could always trust 7-Eleven to bring you a few calories. 

7-eleven - Yoghurt Drink 25baht, Meiji (Chocolate Malt flavour) 25baht,Meiji protein(YES PROTEIN LOL) 50baht, Breakfast set toast+drink 35baht, basil pork microwavable meal 25baht

So yeah, that's about it for this post. I didn't really put much effort into the writing as there's really already quite a number of articles on the popular travel destination. Hopefully the price list helps somebody out there, maybe one of those control freaks who plans everything to the most specific of details. I did left out a few other expenditure including transport costs which took up quite a portion of the money I brought but one should be pretty safe with bringing about 300SGD for a 4 day trip. All in all, Bangkok was a charm and if you're not sure how much money to bring for a trip, more is always better.

Till next time, tight lines and smiley face:)

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The videos are pretty self explanatory but here's a summary of what went on that day.

Woke up at 5.30am to catch the early bus out to catch first light. When I arrived at Chinese Garden MRT station, it was still pretty dark out and I had initially intended to fish at the white bridge located in between Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden. A voice called out to me about 5 minutes into my journey and the owner of said voice made an inquiry on my purpose of being there (full conversation in video). After a small chat and a long walk, I arrived at the legal area only to find that it had been closed since 1st July. Slightly ticked off by how the day started, I carried on an arduous journey to the Lakeside area to try my luck. Less than 10 minutes into the session and I got my first bite of the day and also my first on the Jetty. It wasn't a biggie but small fish is better than no fish any day. I stayed for about an hour and left as all the walking had taken so much time that the sun was soon up and glaring.

I came back at last light at my usual spot where baiters and dabao kings hang out. They seemed to have had quite a good haul in the afternoon with plastic bags filled with struggling fish. Some of you might condemn their act or condemn my act of not intervening but to each his own. While I am sad that there's less fish for leisure, I am pretty sure the fish concerned would not go extinct any time soon. Last light was pretty good for me with 3 bites even though I only landed a small one. I dropped the rest just off the edge of the water but they were not biggies either. All in all it was a pretty good day for me until I broke my rod whilst trying to remove a huge piece of rubbish i had hooked up. I guess you gain some you lose some hahaha.

Tight lines and smiley face :)

P.S. Do visit my shop via the link above. Stocked up quite a few nice things and trying to keep the price competitive to benefit anglers. :)

The night started off with a guest performance by 2 gentleman donning the hairstyle of a well-known Singaporean YouTuber. Their performance was filled with complex moves which my hippopotamus profile would deem inappropriate. There was also a performance of the Singapore national anthem by The Apex Project which I thought was rendered pretty well even though I was waiting for Bryan their beatboxer to put a twist to it but was disappointed for good reasons.

After which, the performances started promptly with the secondary school category which saw incredible talent of the youths. Full footages of their performances below.


The open category saw teams made up of veterans and also 2 teams from my alma mater NTU, Major Crew and Major Syndicate.
The crowd were thoroughly entertained by Ragga Fiyah but Havoc! took the championship of the open category with their baseball performance. (sorry, I didn't manage to get The Disciples' performance)


One crew did get my attention with their costumes though. No, it wasn't the kitties from NRA but Eluminix with their futuristic robots outfit which reminded me of NTU Hall 10's Soulmix 2015 HOCC performance. HEH HEH! :)

Having decided not to bring an extra battery, I was unable to record the other performances but it meant that I could take in the full package first hand and void of the electronic distraction. Do wait for the official videos of the performances!

Dance competitions are always filled with so many surprises and its incredible how the level of dance is always on the rise with new ideas, new combination of techniques and new blood. These things are never easy and I must say all the dancers have delivered this year. Maybe some day I'll find another 23 but till then, i'll tango with temensis.