Sawadeeka! Ok I tak nak waste any more time so I'll just continue on from my first entry ok - listing down the places we visited, the stuff we did and the food we ate whilst in Bangkok in this entry.

Platinum Mall / Pratunam Market

Can I very loudly and very obnoxiously declare that I loooveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Platinum Mall now?!?!?!!! 

When we were in Bangkok in 2009, I had limited choices even though I was a UK12 (UK10 on days when I'm delusional and/or eat less cake hahaha) back then. Didn't expect to do much shopping this time round because of that - thought I'll just pick up some accessories for work and raya, a casual sling bag and maybe a couple of shoes.

I WAS SO PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO BE SO WRONG!

Turns out a couple of plus-sized shops have sprung up in Platinum Mall and around Pratunam market area over the years so I scored quite a decent bundle of new tops, dresses and pants for work and play. If you're hoping to do the same, check out level 3 of Platinum Mall (I went to the other levels but didn't see any plus-sized fashion shops) and a couple of shops in Pratunam market area (I scored 3 pieces of stylish patterned black work pants at S$4.00 each at one of the stalls thank you GOD!) Some snaps from my IG stories:

  

Actually kan, I Googled for plus size shopping before we went for our trip tau and read about this mall called the Krung Thong Plaza but I wasn't sure of the fashion styles it offered and couldn't be bothered to find reviews online so I didn't seriously consider it. REGRETS! While I was there, someone very kindly left a comment on my IG stories, telling me there is a "shopping mall next to Platinum Mall" that offers plus size fashion! Then Saliheen's colleague also told him there is such a shopping mall so I assume she's talking about the same mall haizzzzz... Guess I have a new place to check out when we return to Bangkok next time (And there will be a next time)

There are 2 halal food stalls in Platinum Mall's food court so don't worry ok you won't kebulur kat situ. We also ate dinner mostly at Pratunam area, there are a couple of halal stalls selling authentic Thai food! Waited so long to have some good authentic Thai food and they're all sooooooooooooooooo good!!!!! Air liur jatuh berderai boi. 

Too lazy to list down all the halal makan places (relaxing trip terbawak bawak ke blog entry hahahaha) but there are so many resources online that you can Google for - here are some of the articles/lists I read before our trip: Bangkok Halal Food Guide by Aroimakmak, 10 Must Try Thai Street Eats by Have Halal Will Travel, 10 Must Visit Restaurants in Bangkok by Tripzilla, and Guide to Halal Restaurants in Thailand by Halal Living Thailand. 

Oh, tapi nasib macam kentang sebab the highly raved Tomyam Paa Nga was closed the whole freaking week we were there! I will come back for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Number One Massage

I did a quick search online and found that there was a row of massage parlours about 10 minutes walk from our hotel - chose to patronize Number One Massage since it has positive reviews. They were having "happy hour" (9.00am to 7.00pm, lama betul dorang nya happy "hour" haha) when we arrived so we paid about 200 baht for 1 hour traditional Thai massage. The massages we got weren't bad bad but it wasn't the best massage we've gotten either la so we'll probably try another massage parlour next time for funsies and hope to get better masseuses.

 

Side note: I usually looooove going for those long 3 to 4-hours scrub, wrap, head and body massage packages but ever since I was diagnosed with psoriasis a year and a half ago, I've been feeling a little conscious/wary of going for anything that might aggravate existing patches / trigger new patches. And so malas to explain to staff what the condition is, especially if they don't understand English well. I guess I'll just go for those big chain massage parlours with English speaking staff + explain it to them via email beforehand, if I really want to get back into extensive spa packages. Also, I've been wanting to blog about living with psoriasis but macam tak pernah ada kesempatan! Next time I cerita ok.

A&W at Pantip Plaza

One of the places that I knew I had to return to when we go back to Bangkok was the A&W at Pantip Plaza!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had their piping hot buttery waffles, a cold and refreshing glass of root beer with their glorious vanilla ice cream and yummy curly fries. To this HOUR, I still regret not going back for a second round ok!!!!!

I'm still bitter A&W is no longer in Singapore by the way, dulu when I was still a child, my mum would always bring me to the A&W outlet in Bedok during weekdays for breakfast, just me and her (eventually with my sister when she peskily came along). My love for A&W runs long and deep ok! 😭

Central World

Central World is a mega shopping mall which is less than 10 minutes walk away from Amari Watergate Hotel but we ended up taking an Uber over because it was raining heavily when we wanted to go hahahaha the ride cost us 40 baht wtf. We ended up buying souveniers for our family and friends here because there's a huge Central Food Hall selling nicely packaged durian chips and thai milk tea powder tins on the 7th floor. Also got soaps with loofahs!

Thought of checking out After You dessert cafe next to the food hall but there was a constant long queue during our time in Central World so ain't nobody got time for that. Jalan jalan for awhile, bought some stuff then we walked back to our hotel (since dah tak hujan) before going for dinner. 

We initially wanted to buy souveniers from the much raved Big C Supermarket opposite Central World tau but it turned out to be the biggest MISTAKE EVER! It was like a bloodbath in there siak. Everyone was pushing everything everywhere, people were grabbing stuff and throwing stuff and shouting across aisles etc etc we got so annoyed and so overwhelmed that we immediately abandoned niat nak beli barang kat situ and walked back to Central Food Hall to have a much more peaceful time selecting stuff to bring home. Lesson learned!

Ok I think this entry is long enough already so I'm putting a stop to it di sini! Next and final entry will be about the markets that we went to during our Bangkok trip pulak. Orang lain sebok bercerita pasal bazaar Ramadhan kat Singapore bulan ni, aku pulak busy nak story pasal markets kat Bangkok.

Tokyo Travels: Day 6 (Part 1)

On our sixth day in Tokyo, we spent the first part of the day in Asakusa and the last part of the day in Akihabara! It was an eventful day, which started with us terpusing pusing around Shinjuku Station macam headless chickens hahahaha. Sebab termasuk salah entrance lepas tu tak tau which part nak masuk balek haha

Somehow we just couldn't figure out the correct entrance, even though we went to every entry/exit and walked all round! FOR AN HOUR!!!!! I mean, we knew how it felt like to be overwhelmed by the train lines in Tokyo (we experienced it during the first 2 days) but travelling by public trains in Tokyo had been relatively easy after we familiarized ourselves with the system. So for us to get perplexed by the train lines on our sixth day in Tokyo, it just added to the confusion la :/

In the end, a very frustrated Saliheen sighed and said "Naik taxi sudah la". Haha. 

Terus run out to the road and flagged one! Also took a picture of the taxi fare breakdown, in case anyone's interested:

When we planned to go to Tokyo, we kept hearing that taxis in Tokyo are super expensive bla bla bla, so we tried as much as possible not to take one. But kita tak boleh angkat our exhaustion on one of the nights so we flagged one down from Shibuya back to our hotel and it cost us about S$20.00? Which was reasonable to us??? Kita ingatkan mahal sampai S$50 per cab ride ke apa. We went on to take 3 more taxi rides in Tokyo after that because we thought the costs was worth the comfort and time spent, lagi lagi bila dah penat at end of the day.

Okay, now back to blogging pasal our sixth day in Tokyo! We were lapar gila by the time we arrived in Asakusa because we wasted so much time trying to figure out the train!!! So our first priority was to cari Naritaya, which is a tempat makan in Asakusa serving halal ramen, amongst other things like fried chicken.

It took us another 20 minutes to look for the kedai makan, even though we had pictures to its shopfront to refer to (we saved pictures from the Internet) - probably because it was lorong after lorong of kedai kedai with the same blue curtain exterior haha. Turns out to be the unit located at almost the end of one of the lorong! Friendly staff who greeted us at the front was a Japanese who just embraced Islam a month back, Alhamdullilah.

Naritaya differs from other makan establishments in Tokyo, due to the fact that it does not serve alcohol at its premises at all. The people behind this restaurant are Malaysians too (macam Ippin)! You do you, Malaysians, particularly when it comes to bringing halal food to Japan!

We quickly discovered that the person behind the counter was a abang melayu from Malaysia! Saliheen became sooooo chatty (more than usual) that I teased him about missing being able to speak in Malay to another person other than me haha. He said it was true ok, and that it was refreshing to ask questions and receive answers in fluent Malay after days of interacting with others in broken English campur Japanese. He became so kamchengho with the abang sampai keluar hisap rokok sama sama belakang kedai, amboi amboi sedara.....

Anyway, something else that was refreshing in the kedai was the ramen! It tasted nice, and I felt so puas eating a hot meal after days of eating cold sushi and sashimi (which I still love, but sometimes you just want your perut dalam to terbakar a little bit, you know). 

The only thing that could be better was the eggs? They served the ramen with telur with yolk yang masak habis. Dah macam telur dalam mee rebus la pulak haha, kan eggs in ramen selalu half cooked and still wobbly! But that's ok la, I tak discriminate telur ok, I still like all of them in whatever forms, even in Gudetama form hehe.

This was when we walked from Naritaya to Senso-ji Temple (it's nearby, walking distance of one to two minutes)... we saw Tokyo Skytree in the distance! We didn't go up the tower because we read that there will be lots of tour groups causing long waiting lines *shudders* Maybe we'll check it out next time we're in Tokyo, and at a timing when there wouldn't be such an insane crowd.

Senso-ji Temple was pretty crowded too, but it was nice to walk amongst the locals, tourists and worshippers from all over Asia who came to gawk and/or pray at the temple.

By the way, if you want to take pictures at the Kaminarimon entrance, please do it quick because nanti ada je orang yang tak sabar tunggu you to finish your photo-taking and will stand in your frame. Macam dekni:

Ah tu la dia, mata orang yang tak sabar sabar suruh kau cepat sikit HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Should probably mention that this was also where we bought some of the souveniers for our families and friends! There are rows of shops that sell souveniers and snacks leading to Sensoji Temple, which was where we got some souveniers for family and friends. Oh, remember I said jangan beli souveniers kat Tsukiji Market?! We really should've known better! Saliheen got chopsticks for his colleagues at S$12.00 per 5-set pack at Tsukiji Market when it only costs S$6.00 here!!! 50% lesser seh. Luckily we only got a few packs from Tsukiji Market.

[Note: There are three places which I recommend getting souveniers from: Either from Nakamise Dori (which is the stretch of shops leading into Sensoji Temple), from any Don Quijote outlet (we went to the one in Kabukicho, it's right beside the main road and has a Mustafa Centre feel and layout) or from the AKKY II tax-free shop in Akihabara. These places sell various things for cheap, ranging from facial masks, chopsticks, tea sets, green tea packs, t-shirts, fans, terompah, chocolates, novelty gifts, etc.]

Anyway, after we visited Sensoji Temple, we had some free time so we did a quick Google search for a cat cafe in Asakusa and the first hit result was Cat Cafe Asakusa Nekoen. It's the unit on the sixth floor and costs ¥800 (S$10.00) for one hour per person.

This is a picture of me after I bribe belanja the cats with treats hehehehe

The owner was a polite but firm lady, and I don't know whether I was just uncomfortable with her gaze but I didn't really play much with the cats or enjoy my time there. Might also be because we went at the wrong timing because most of the cats were sleeping, hiding and refusing to budge from their positions (typical stubborn cat behaviour hah). And I guess I expected a traditional cafe setting but it felt more like a house with many rescued cats...? (Which it probably is) Saliheen and I had a pleasant time la, but I don't think I'll return nor recommend this place if you're looking for something with a traditionally known cat cafe setting.

After our one hour was up, we walked to Ippin for our dinner. This is the one in Asakusa that serves ramen!!! (Remember our confusion from the day before?) You can find directions on Google maps, it's pretty accurate.

THIS WAS WHERE WE HAD THE BEST, MOST DELICIOUS CHICKEN RAMEN EVER!!!!! 

I don't think the noises of pleasure, satisfaction and gratitude that came out of Saliheen and I while we slurped the noodles and soup sounded very appropriate HAHAHAHA. 

Very hot, very hearty and they weren't kidding when they said we'll get to savour the "deep rich taste of the chicken" hahahaha. We've never tasted ramen soup that rich before ok! And the best part, the egg yolk is the wet and wobbly kind that you expect from Japanese dishes hehehe. I think this is my next favourite meal after our first night dinner at Gyumon, honestly - Saliheen and I couldn't stop talking about it for days after that... ♥

Each ramen bowl cost about ¥750 (S$9.30) and the kedai has two levels - the 2nd level is the usual restaurant seating format whereas the first level (where we sat) was a bar seating format (smoking allowed). They also serve other stuff like fried chicken and curry sets (which we didn't really like).

Anyway, if you really, really, really can only afford time to eat at only one place in Asakusa that serves halal food, I highly recommend Ippin! Naritaya wins with their warm and friendly service whereas Ippin wins with the taste of their ramen. But if you can go for both joints like (gelojoh) us then that will be the best, of course! 

Okay, that'll be all for Asakusa! It was off to Akihabara pulak, known as an otaku culture hub!

Ole Ole Dari Turkiye

My in-laws came back from Turkey last week and being the kind and generous souls that they are, they brought home lots of ole ole and gifted them to my parents and Saliheen and I ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I especially love the olive oil soaps because they are SO wangi!!!!! My MIL picked that out for me - it's like she knows I have a weakness for pure soap blocks even though it has never come up in conversation. (I personally love the Au Lait Extra Large Milk Soap from The Scottish Fine Soaps Company, please try to have a whiff if you ever see it in stores)

Another favourite is the Turkish tea, of course, and check out that beautiful red scarf!!!!! Very European. I asked Saliheen if he's interested to ever step foot in Turkey and he said not really, not in the near future at least. I asked him why, and he said because cuaca kat sana panas and he only wants to travel to countries with colder climate wtf what kind of reason is this. Pergi la Turkey bila their cuaca tengah tak panas sangat!

Ok la I've never thought about Turkey as a potential travel destination too, not originally anyway, but after reading these blog entries, watching Estee's travel vlogs last year, our friends' recent trip as well as my in-laws', I think it'd be a neat destination to consider in the future. I'll just have to find out bila cuaca kat sana tak panas sangat and yet we can still enjoy outdoor activities so my husband tak bising bising pasal ketiak basah la what la.