Travel Diary to Bangkok, Thailand - Food & Places (UPDATED 2016)

Hi guys! I'm back with another blogpost! This time, I reunited with the Land of Smiles, Bangkok Thailand - my last travel destination in the month of November (as mentioned in my previous posts, I was on back-to-back-to-back vacation trips during the month of Nov 2016)! Yes, I have been to this place before. See my earlier blogpost Travel Diary to Bangkok, Thailand - Food & Places. It was just last year since I was there but plenty of things have changed and I'm excited to show you the new places and food that I have tried, and of course re-visiting past places to see how much things have changed! If you see certain repetitions, don't feel confused! It's the same place, just with added information and more recent pictures! (: Lastly, I have also put food together with the places (instead of the usual - separating food and places differently) that we visited as often times, these are night markets and it would make more sense to put them together.

Without further ado, let's get started! 

Travel Date: 17th - 22nd November 2016
Expenditure: Approx SGD $498 for 2 person (SIA flight promo package includes 30kg check-in luggage and meal onboard. GREAT DEAL!) Approx SGD $1200 for 2 (Inclusive of transportation fees, food, shopping) SGD $439 for 2 for 6D5N in total for accomodations
WI-FI: Found in plenty of cafes! Prepaid SIM Card at the Airport 299 Baht for 7-days 4G (AIS)
Weather: Summer 
Navigation: Google Maps; we mostly travelled by taxi as the taxis there are cheap as compared to Singapore. Chose comfort and luxury rather than the local BTS train service Or you can also order an Uber on your Uber app and just look out for the driver's car plate number! :)

Bleah~ Flying off in comfortable Airport wear and catching up with the latest Harry Potter series as I haven't gotten the time to read it yet! I finished it at the end of the trip and it was a mixture of nostalgia and awesome-ness! Literally, a major part of my childhood! Hope I am able to have the opportunity to catch the theatre show in London someday! 

*Disclaimer: This is not an official travel guide so opinions, reviews and instructions are subjected to biases, memory lapses and the occasional side-track rambling.*

PLACES WE WENT & WHAT WE ATE THERE: 

1. Talad Rod Fai Train Night Market Srinakarin

Biggest train night market out of all three. It has the most number of stalls that sell a variety of products ranging from cheap clothes, trinkets and vintage antique. Hell, there's even a store selling vintage motorcycles! In my opinion, if you have limited time to visit all three train night markets, this would be the best option to choose! For people who love shopping, this place has the widest available options to choose from due to the makeshift stalls (Outdoor Market) and the ones with proper legit stores (Indoor Market). The prices are of course, slightly higher in the Indoor Market. After a few hours of shopping, you can even grab a cold beer at one of their bars. Feeling hungry? There's street food for the peckish and for the famished, there are open-air restaurants catering to different cusines like Korean BBQ, traditional Thai Mookata, burger joints and Western grills. It is true what they say, Bangkok IS getting more global. 

A place to view vintage vehicles!

Familiar sight right! I had this in my previous blogpost on Bangkok as well! 

Squid is yummy! We had dinner as well at this train night market but I didn't take any photos because the dishes were pretty ordinary. It was just a plate of vegetables, soup and meat.

 Smoke Monster (aka Dragon's Breath) can be found quite commonly in train night markets! It is basically crackers or ice-cream filled with hydrogen and when you eat the crackers or ice-cream, you can blow smoke out of it. Beware for those with sensitive teeth though, it may sting!

Shown in IG (@nicesgjy)

Getting here:
Thailand, ถนน ศรีนครินทร์ - Srinagarindra 51 Alley, Nong Bon, Prawet, Bangkok 10250, Thailand
Take BTS to On Nut area and a cab ride to Talad Rod Fai 

Opening hours:
Closed from Mon-Wed
Outdoor Market: Thurs-Saturday (4pm - 1am); Sunday (4pm - 12am)
Indoor Market: Tues-Sunday (3pm-11pm)

Advice:
Largest train night market out of the 3 (Srinakarin, Ratchada and Kaset-Nawamin. We only went to the first 2) 
If limited time, this is the best train night market to go due to its wide variety.
Mention Seacon Square if cab drivers do not know where is Talad Rod Fai

2. Talad Rod Fai Train Night Market Ratchada 

There are a few stores that sell oysters that Darren (who was travelling with me) and Wylie (whom I met on our 2nd last day as he was here on a business trip) both agreed are very fresh, serves a generous serving and there were no flies hovering around it (Kudos to sanitation!). I believe the stall is called Never Die. YES, indeed. Because his love for it 'never died' as he felt like he had to go for a second serving and went in search for it again. As they do serve a generous serving, please be careful! Darren had a major stomachache after that not because of the food's quality but because, he ate too much oysters at one go. -.-

While Darren and Wylie got their oysters from 'Never Die' store, I got this a couple stalls down! I'm not too sure what this is. Tastes like crispy and soft calamari but without the chewiness. REALLY GOOD! Highly recommended to try! :)

REMEMBER THIS?! I featured this in my previous blogpost! It is called Kanom Coke Bolan! Taste like waffles, only more chewy and the flavour is more fragrant! MY FAVOURITE! I was surprised that I saw it here because I didn't see them anywhere else except for at Talad Rot Srinakarin train night market and the queue there was long and slow. I was so disappointed then and decided not to wait but when I saw it here, I was ecstatic and immediately got it! A MUST TRY! The store prepared it really quickly so I'm not too sure why the queue at the stall at Srinakarin was so slow. But anyhoo, if you have't tried these babies before, please do! SO GOOD! Eat it while piping hot!

HUGE cuppa thai royal green milk tea! Made of thai milk tea powder (seen 2 pictures above) and A LOT OF condensed milk. We initially told the lady less sugar and she nodded. It turns out that she didn't put one ounce of sugar but a lot of condensed milk and syrup and it was so sweet! Maybe next time, we can consider telling them less milk or syrup haha...

Ratchada was more of food for us as we were quite hungry! We chanced upon this store selling great babyback pork ribs that are cheap! This is a single rack babyback pork ribs enough to feed 3 of us. Together with 2 drinks, this total meal sets us at a total of about SGD $13 approximately (estimation not necessarily accurate). However, our general impression is that it is CHEAP for a pretty good, substantial meal that would probably cost us about 50 dollars back in Singapore! :D

Meeting friends overseas is always fun! 

After meals, we shopped around a little. Ratchada is smaller than Srinakarin and therefore, lesser variety of items. Clothing and other trinkets that I could find in Ratchada can also be found in Srinakarin. I can't speak for the food though because certain food stalls like the one selling those awesome, superbly affordable babyback ribs seem to only be found here.

Getting here:
Thailand, Din Daeng, Bangkok, Thailand
Located directly behind Thailand Cultural Centre BTS Exit 3

Opening hours:
Tues-Sat; 5pm-1am 
Sunday 5pm-12am

Advice:
Come here if you have the time to browse more train night markets. 
Food > Shopping in my opinion here! HIGHLY recommended to give the fresh oysters, Kanom Coke Bolam and the babyback pork ribs a go when you are here! :D

3. Chatuchak Weekend Market 
Including JJ Green Vintage Night Market

The King passed away about more than a month ago during the period we were there. This sign was one of the first things we saw at Chatuchak Weekend Market where they were giving away free rice vermicelli noodles. We didn't take any but I took this picture because I think it was really nice of them to commemorate their love for their Majesty even a month after their passing. They really do love and respect their King.

 Coconut ice-cream!! As I mentioned in my previous blogpost on Bangkok regarding Chatuchak, try getting coconut ice-creams where they open them right in front of you! But I realised that it is not possible as they usually have the coconut shells prepared beforehand before they sell them. I guess we will never know if it is truly hygienic, but what we DO know is that it is really yummy! And I didn't get a stomachache unlike Darren who got greedy and ate a ton of oysters LOL

Mini fried eggs!

Mango sticky rice!

Royal Thai Green milk tea again! This one is a bit more pricey than the usual ones sold at night markets and the serving is pretty small. But the flavour is definitely more rich (:

We also went to JJ Green Vintage Market which is located near Chatuchak Weekend Market Described as a flea market with bohemian vibes but personally, nothing much really as it was just more shopping and food. The Market is pretty small but very crowded. Instead of tents as stalls, most of them put out their goods on tables or on mats on the floors. There were A LOT of sellers selling footwear ranging from sneakers to slippers and some of them looked pretty worn out. Not too sure if some people have accidentally mistaken "worn out" as vintage or just looking for a way to throw out their old shoes, but the good thing is, they were priced really cheap. This makes me wonder even more; did they think vintage means "second-hand" items?! Gosh, the horror! Anyway, if you really want to get shoes at a cheap price or see if you can unearth any vintage trinkets, this may be a fun place to look. Okay, to be fair, they do sell new stuff there as well! 

Getting here:

Chatuchak Weekend Market

587/10 Kamphaeng Phet 2 Rd, Khwaeng Chatuchak, Khet Chatuchak, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10900, Thailand

SkyTrain to (N8) Mo Chit Station (Sukhumvit Line), Take exit 1 and walk straight 100m to Chatuchak Park on your right. 

JJ Green Vintage Market

เลขที่ 1 ถนนกำแพงเพชร 3, แขวงจตุจักร, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

Kamphaeng Phet 3 Road, behind Jatujak park.

Approximately a 15-minute walk from Chatuchak Weekend Market

Opening hours:

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Sat & Sun: 8am - 8pm

JJ Green Vintage Market

Closed on Tues and Mon

Wed 6pm - 1am

Thurs 6pm - 1230am

Fri-Sun 530pm - 130am 

Advice:

Head down to JJ Green Market from Chatuchak Weekend Market as it is a short distance away. If lost, just ask for directions to JJ Green shopping mall. When reached, go past it and head to the park. Yes, you will have to walk through the park (which can get quite dark at night) but if you are going on a weekend, you can just follow the crowd through the park and it will lead you right to the Vintage Market.

Bring sunglasses, sunscreen and a sunhat as Chatuchak can get very hot during noon hours. Remember to be properly hydrated! (:

4. ARTBOX @ Chatuchak 

Teenage Creative Market - Bangkok's hippiest container market 

Vibes at night was really chill and great! There was a band playing as we sat around these low tables to enjoy the food and beverage bought at the stalls. Artbox @ Chatuchak is a hipster container market where youths set up their own businesses and supposedly, the venue has been known to shift around a bit. This time round, it has shifted near Chatuchak. It will be known to stay around from 30th Sept 2016 to 30th April 2017 this time round. Do follow their Facebook page to see where its next venue may be!

Appetizz was featured on my IG (@nicesgjy). Very colourful and bright! It is just soda and the bottom blue part is made of jelly. Anyway, once you buy the bottle, you can refill it at a cheaper price. I wanted to bring it home and in future, when I visit Bangkok again and happened to go to Artbox, I can bring this bottle and get it refilled at a cheaper price! It is an investment!!! Well, that was what the typical cheapo Singaporean in me thought. But when I brought it back to the hotel to have it washed and cleaned, the top cap couldn't open so I threw it away. Sad :( Anyway, there are plenty of colourful drinks in the market for you to choose from and you will be spoilt for choice!

I was craving for some fried chicken!

Again, obsession with oysters! These oysters are fresh and huge! They dont have that 'seasalty' taste that oysters usually have (that I know some people actually love). Darren's guess is that the sellers harvest these oysters locally in a farm and that was why they lacked the usual taste that oysters often have. I'm not complaining as I never really like that kind of taste so all in all, for those of you who don't like oysters for that 'seasalty' taste then this is pretty good! <3 Worth a try!

Coconut shake! We saw this at one of the stalls having a TV promotional screen. It supposedly came with ice-cream so we ordered one to try. Lo and behold, there wasn't any! Apparently, the menu stating coconut shake is different from the one shown onscreen. They get the coconut shake from another stall as we saw a man coming to one of the staff from outside the store holding our coconut shake. It is a pretty innovative concept, the store sells other types of food like pork ribs (I can't remember what the store sold because we only ordered the drink) and 'outsources' the drinks to another store. Both stores get to benefit because one is able to have an option on making drinks without excessively spending on labour and ingredients while the other is able to serve more customers! Later, we found the Nam Hom stall selling these coconut shake and yes, they do have the option of having it with an ice-cream! Maybe next time when you eat at this store that has the screen showing the coconut shake with the ice-cream, just ask if they have that and chances are, they probably will!

Getting here:

Nearest BTS is Kamphaeng Phet Exit No. 1

Opening hours:

Fri-Sun 3pm-11pm

Advice:

You can drop by this place after Chatuchak Weekend Market since they are within walking distance of each other. However, if you do want to go to JJ Green Vintage Market after visiting Chatuchak Weekend Market like we did, it is perfectly fine to come on another weekend evening to fully soak in the whole young-hippie vibe! Do not feel the need to rush from places to places! (Honestly, you can give JJ Green Vintage Market a miss if you are not into odd trinkets and old shoes)

Come here hungry so you can have a good meal soaking in chill vibes by the wooden tables.

There is also plenty of shopping you can do, but to be honest, variety is quite limited and commonly seen around other night markets.

Website: www.artboxth.com 

5. Reverie 

Cafe & Pattiserie 

 Located next to a Muay Thai gym

This places is GORGEOUS! (Hence, the photo spam!) Clean, white marble decorations and a unique chandelier hanging atop made up entirely of teacups! Decorations were adorable to take pictures with! I went online and saw that some people even went to take their wedding photos there because of the white decorations and the flattering light! When we went there, there were only 2 girls and us (I guess it might be because it's a weekday and also, the location was pretty difficult to find). Anyway, the emptiness of the place gave me plenty of opportunities and time to snap selfies hahaha :D

Cute straw which they folded into a rose! Such attention to detail! <3

No service charge as you can see! But the price wasn't exactly cheap (735 Baht = SGD 39) for Thailand cafes in general. The food was just average and we didn't try the desserts because we were kinda saving our stomach space for street food later on when we visit a night market. But anyhow, worthy to visit for nice photos and also, brunch with the girls!

Getting here:

23/1 สุคนธสวัสดิ์ ลาดพร้าว

Bangkok, Thailand

(Address is also on the receipt photo above)

Opening hours:

Tues-Sun 1030am - 930pm

Closed on Mondays

Advice:

Have the desserts! I didn't get to try the desserts as reason stated above. As mentioned, the mains are just average. The mains on the menu are multi-cuisine. They serve dominantly Western and Thai food, but you may have a few Japanese sides like the onsen egg we ordered. 

Either take a taxi or Uber as the location is a little remote (yes, your local Uber app auto-calibrates to Thailand when you reach! Just remember to change payment option to cash instead of using your debit/credit card option as I'm pretty sure Thai Baht conversion to SGD according to banks aren't exactly the best rates) 

6. Chocolate Ville

Chocolate Ville is a theme park restaurant with cafes that allow customers to dine by the river and plenty of picturesque spots for you to take pictures! Contrary to its name, it is not a place filled with chocolate though (sorry to disappoint y'all chocolate lovers!)

 LOOK!~ I wanna take pictures of this! #candidshot

This tower can be accessed and when you climb to the top, you can see the entire Chocolate Ville!

 Here's some views on top of the tower!

Chocolate Ville is really a very pretty picturesque place to take pictures and have dinner or tea by the lake! 

Chocolate Ville's map! As you can see, it is quite small but so quaint! <3

Getting here:

Either Uber of take a taxi as this place is nowhere near any BTS. (20-30 minutes car ride)

Kaset-Nawamin Road, Bueng Kum District, Bangkok

Opening hours:

4pm - 12am daily

No entrance fee required 

Advice:

Although the opening hours states 4pm, it is actually only the cafes there that opens at 4pm. The place opens at 3:30pm and you can enter to take plenty of pictures unintruded and unobstructed. The place usually starts to get crowded around 4:30pm which is perfect because I got all my pictures done by then already. Most people come here to dine by the lake and enjoy the evening and night glow of the place as the sun sets. It was a pity because we had a heavy meal at Reverie before we came here so we weren't hungry. It was no use going into one of the restaurants just to order drinks and wait for the evening light to arrive. My advice is come early to take pictures and also, arrive on an empty stomach so you can dine at one of the restaurants by the lake and catch the evening sunset. The scenery on top of the tower is beautiful and I betcha the night scenery is even more breathtaking so it is definitely worthy to wait and catch it (maybe on my next trip to Bangkok hahaha). 

Possible to call in advance to make reservations because when we asked about any empty slots for 2 at one of the restaurants, they told us they were fully booked for the day. 

For their contact number and more information, here's their Facebook Page.

7. Ekamai Soi 10 District

Perhaps Rabbits by Pop Me Up & (Un)fashion Vintage 

 (Un)fashion Vintage Cafe was crowded so we headed directly opposite of this cafe which is their second cafe that sells pretty much the same meals.

 Thai iced tea again! (:

 I got salmon (above) and Darren got beef in a pan. Mines was basically just appetiser so the serving was small. The salmon was fried and tasted sour due to the seasoning and flavour on top of it. The beef, according to Darren was average only. The ambience was lovely though. As we went to their second outlet directly opposite (below), it was less crowded. The setting was pretty much the same as the first outlet where we took pictures at, just more roomy and spacious. (:

 Located right beside Un(fashion) Cafe 

 The decorations are so cute! Yes, you can sit on the chair to take pictures! (:

 

Mudcake and their signature dessert (which I honestly cannot remember the name but it has graham crackers in it). Also, the unicorn (or was it pastel rainbow?) drink which you can request for it to be less sweet/sugary. Lastly, skip the mudcake and have their signature dessert if you only have room for one dessert. The mudcake was alright only. 

Getting here:
 3 ซอย เอกมัย 10 Soi Sukhumvit 63 Road, Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
(This is the address for (Un)fashion Vintage Cafe only but you can find other cafes including Perhaps Rabbits nearby)

Opening hours:
1130am-9pm daily (Un)fashion Cafe
9am-9pm daily Perhaps Rabbits 

Advice:
Ekamai Soi 10 seems to be the new and hip cafe area. Give this place a whirl if you are bored of Thonglor (though this place is not as well-established as Thonglor yet!) and looking for a new area to go to. There are a couple of cafes around that you can try as well! My suggestion for cafe-hopping is to try the mains at one cafe, one dessert at another and another dessert at a third cafe. This will enable you to have a full, complete meal across several cafes! Also, there is a massage place called Health Land (I mentioned this before in my previous Bangkok post but they have a ton of outlets) where you can have a massage either before or after your cafe-hopping! PERFECT! (:

8. Massages @ Health Land Spa (Ekamai) & SAT Relax

 Traditional Thai Massage (2 hours) costs about 550 Baht each person. The masseurs will lead you to a room where you get changed and lie down on mattresses. Traditional Thai Massage has no oil involved and no stepping on one's body. Also, it is a full body massage. 

On a completely different day, we went to one of the local massage parlours located near our Hotel Berkeley Pratunam. 

SAT Relax Massage Parlour is a nondescript massage parlour located along the streets near Palladium World Shopping Centre. Prices can be negotiated with one of the masseurs/peddlers trying to push laminated card depicting prices of the different massages. Free Internet WI-FI Access. I did a 1 hour Thai traditional Massage + 1 hour Foot Massage and it costs me about 670 Baht (SGD $26) and Darren a full 2 hours oil massage for 700 Baht (SGD $28)

Getting here:
Ekamai Health Land 
96/1 Soi Sukhumvit 63 (Ekamai) Sukhumvit Rd., Prakanong Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110

(Located next to the Ekamai Soi 10 District where the cafes are)

SAT Relaxing 

Located at the streets near Palladium World Shopping Centre and Berkeley Hotel

Opening hours:

SAT Relax Massage Parlour should be open from 12 pm onwards and closes at 12am daily.

Health Land outlets opens from 9am-11pm daily 

Advice:

In my honest opinion, for a relaxing atmosphere and ambience, choose Health Land Spa because it is more private. At these local massage parlours along the streets, there is a lot of foot flow and people kept coming in and out when I was doing both the massages. NOT relaxing at all. But if you are doing oil massage, you get to go upstairs which is slightly quieter. In terms of massage skills, SAT Relaxing Massage Parlour is slightly better. Also, their prices are more negotiable. There are a few other massage parlours located alongside this street which I never tried before but feel free to have a go! 

Remember to tip at least 100 Baht per masseur. 

If looking for SAT Relax Massage Parlour, look for people in Orange shirts. Also, they are quite well-versed in a few languages and can be quite chatty and friendly! So Kudos to customer service :D Here is their Facebook Page.

For more information about Health Land other services and outlet locations, look here.

For Ekamai outlet, it is relatively less busy so there is no need for reservations. I know other busier outlets like Asoke (which I have been to the previous time) required reservations to prevent disappointment. Regardless, feel free to make reservations as they do hire staff that are fluent in English.
Lastly, go easy on the massage. Try to have only one massage session per day or even if you decide to go for 2 massage sessions in one day, at least make sure they are on different body parts e.g. 2 full-body massages is a little too much for the body but 1 full-body and 1 foot massage per day is fine.

9. Platinum Fashion Mall

Hahahaha saw this shirt at one of the stores! :D And yes, it is an occupational hazard because sometimes when I'm lecturing someone, I may accidentally slip into my teacher voice hahahaa 

Apart from shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall, there is also certain food that is worthy to mention because everyone gets hungry at some point of time amidst the shopping! Demi Concept ice-cream right outside Platinum Fashion Mall with limited flavours like Vanilla Charcoal and Thai Tea. We chose the mix flavour. The interesting thing is that they have a few choices of cones and I can't remember which one I chose but the entire ice-cream was yumz!

My all-time favourite! Yum Saap @ Platinum Fashion Mall on the 6th floor of Zone 2! When I visit Platinum Fashion Mall, the first thing on my mind wasn't shopping but reuniting with the awesome Pad Thai and Crispy Morning Glory soaked in sweet Thai chilli sauce. AAAAHHH, HEAVEN!!! :DDDD

Location:

Platinum Fashion Mall 

(Located just opposite Amari Watergate Bangkok as seen on the map)

Bangkok, จังหวัด กรุงเทพมหานคร 10400, Thailand

Opening hours:

9am - 8pm daily 

The opening hours refer to Platinum Shopping Mall itself and the restaurant may only open around 10-11am

Advice:

As I mentioned in my previous Bangkok blogpost, YOU HAVE TO TRY AT LEAST ONE YUM SAAP RESTAURANT! Especially their Pad Thai and the Crispy Morning Glory! SO GOOD! :D

10. BIG C Supercenter 

Directly opposite a large food tent area

 Before heading to BIG C, we saw this food tent area and got some food! (:

 Yummy and tasty-looking Kanom Coke Bolam again! They looked huge and colourful! <3

Sweet Thai pancakes! (I think that's what they are called?) Crispy on the outside with either sweet or salty fillings and a hint of coconut inside! I chose the sweet flavour and boy, was it a great tasting snack!

At the food market, we saw some sellers cutting out these crispy rice cakes! They gave us the food samples to try and because they just came out of a huge pan/wok, they are hot, crispy and crunchy! LOVE IT!! I believe we got it for 3 for 100 Baht. Darren and I both like the one with the nuts because it has a crunchier texture. The original flavour was great too! (:

We bought a ton of mangoes, packets of the BIG SHEET seaweed (A seaweed brand from Thailand) and other snacks! What really surprised me was this snack (below) over here which I just grabbed from a random basket. I bought two different flavours - the pumpkin and carrot and honestly, I couldn't tell the difference but both turned out REALLY YUMMY!  

Yes, we bought a lot of fruits. I bought one packet back since my mum loves mangoes (no, I don't like it) She commented that the mangoes are average so you aren't missing much if you choose to give those fruits a miss!

Getting here:

A 10-minute walk from Platinum Fashion Mall, cross an overhead bridge and you will reach the store. 

97/11 Rajdamri Rd. Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Opening hours:

9am-11pm daily 

Advice:

When crossing the overhead bridge, look out for the large white food tent. We happened to chance upon it! For shopping, do buy their Big Sheet seaweed snacks in bulk! Highly popular and many tourists love to hoard them home because they are light. Additionally, you can try looking for the chips I introduced earlier as they are good! (:

There is a packing table for you to pack your products into boxes but no tape or strings or scissors are provided so you might have to buy these supplies in the store.

11. CHETTA Lifestyle Salon 

Short tresses review!

Okay, so this isn't the most flattering picture of me but just a picture proof of me doing my hair at Chetta Hair's Salon. I saw a lot of positive online reviews about how friendly she is, how the services provided are satisfactory and lastly, how the price she quotes is reasonable. So of course I HAD TO TRY! 

Now as some of you may have read my previous travel blogposts, I actually went to Korean and did my hair there. Although the quality was competent, they completely ruined my fringe and made it curly and unmanageable! I decided to wait a while before doing anything to my hair so I went to Boracay with the hopes that the curls on my fringe will tone down a notch. Sadly they stuck to me (and my forehead) like an ugly person - flat and unappealing (hahaha...). So I decided to straighten my permed fringe and do a total hair treatment. By that time it was already close to 2 weeks since my Korea trip and so they said I could straighten my fringe. Straightened my fringe + full hair treatment + trim = approximately SGD $50. The price was indeed reasonable! Ms Chetta (the lady in the picture doing my hair) helped me with the rebonding part while her assistant did the washing and treatment. Her assistant also ended up helping me trim my fringe a little. I didn't mind because despite her assistant's questionable experience in dealing with hair, she made sure to snip a little by little so I can say stop whenever I wanted to. That's something a little different from dealing with experienced hair stylist (or egoistic hairstylists who think they are superb with hair but are actually not) as experienced hair stylists often snip and cut your hair so fast that if a grievous mistake has occurred, you wouldn't even know it or don't even know how and when to stop it! Although her assistant's snipping skills are not highly-skilled, yes, she cut my fringe literally like this \/\/\/ <-- Yep, that is how my fringe looks like if I lay it out for everyone to see right now. But as I mentioned before, I'm thankful that they have done the job of successfully salvaging my horrendous curly fringe and I also made sure she didn't cut my fringe too short so when I get back to Singapore, I can give it a month or two for my fringe to look a little more natural before I let anybody's hands go near it. Lastly, the staff are really friendly (Basically it is just Ms Chetta, her 2 assistants and her young son. I know her husband sometimes drops by the store, but he wasn't there the day I went) and Ms Chetta and one of the assistants know how to speak English pretty well as most of their customers are farang (Thai local term for white-skinned foreigners) and expats. 

Getting here:

938, Sukhumvit Soi 103 (Udom Suk Soi 50-52) 
Bangkok 10260, Thailand

We took a taxi to Soi Sukhumvit 103, it is located just by the road and beside a 7-11 convenience store

Opening hours:

8am - 9pm daily 

Advice:

Updated contact no: 086-0026699 (I know online they still have the older phone number)

Email add: BangkokHairSalon@gmail.com 

Website: www.BangkokHairSalon.com

Call their local number when in Bangkok to fix an appointment in advance. They prefer you to call in as when I did a walk-in, they said they prefer if customers call early so that they won't get disappointed if they arrive to find out that the salon was crowded that day. Don't worry, they know how to speak English! (I went around 5pm on a Friday night, I think.) 

Would I recommend you to go to this salon? Yes, I will recommend this place if you only require basic services like hair colouring, simple wash + cut and treatment. If you are looking for a dramatic make-over or a fancy blowout for your hair to an amazing party, chances are that you will have to lower your expectations a little bit. Apart from satisfactory and competent hair skills, the staff are friendly and can converse in English fluently and their prices are reasonable. I left the place a satisfied customer (unlike back in Korea). 

Lastly, after you haircut, you can make your way down to the nearest train night market Srinakarin which is just 10 minutes away. Remember to tell the taxi driver you are going to Seacon Square cause most taxi drivers seem to not know about Srinakarin as of the moment. If you are not sure, you can always ask one of the staff to help you flag a cab and speak to the driver! (:

That's all for my trip!! (:

MY PERSONAL AFTER-THOUGHTS:

PEOPLE: Generally relatively friendly people who know how to speak minimal English at least. However, when I met my friend Wylie in Bangkok as he was here for a business trip, we met a nasty taxi driver who cheated us of our money. After shopping at Srinakarin train night market, we wanted to go back to our respective hotels at Pratunam and Patpong. We wanted to drop me off at my place first and then drop him second. The driver kept insisting that Wylie's place is closer. I was firm and told him my place 'NUMBER ONE' and Wylie's place 'NUMBER TWO'. He even repeated it to us loudly and we thought we were safe so we drove off. Towards the end of the journey, we saw on Google Maps there he was on the way to Wylie's place first instead. I was so angry! I then insisted to lower the price and we dropped off at Wylie's hotel and I will just Uber back to my hotel because I don't feel safe with this man driving me alone back to my hotel. Also, I didn't want to pay him what was originally agreed which was 350 Baht as he himself didn't hold his end of the bargain. I told him off and we agreed on 300 Baht but he dropped both of us instead at one destination only. When we were about to exit the taxi, I told Wylie that we should pay him 250 Baht instead, to give him a taste of his own medicine. He started shouting at us and I shouted back at him. Then I realised we were nowhere near Wylie's hotel (he had slyly dropped us off right before the turn to his hotel) and the streets were deserted except for a few drunkards and suspicious-looking people. Realising we are not safe (and Wylie only halfway out of the car cause unlike me, he is a softy who can get easily bullied just by a loud-mouthed asshole), I told him to forget it and just pay him the money. Upon hindsight, I realised I should trick him into turning right to the hotel and after that pay him 250 Baht. He can't do anything because we have the upper hand as we would be at Wylie's hotel and there are relevant authorities and security who can help us. So lesson learnt ladies and gentlemen, apart from learning a bit of Thai which may go a long way to ease communication (also written in my previous blogpost), be smart and more sly if you choose to (either accidentally or deliberately) take taxi with this kind of shifty-looking taxi drivers. 

TIPS to handle bad taxi drivers:

1. Make sure you make them drop you directly at the hotel (Don't listen to what they have to say about 'traffic jams' and 'inconvenient'.) This way, they can't try anything funny and you have the upper hand if they start to demand more money from you as you can just run to the hotel staff and security to get them to help you. 

2. Be firm and tell them, 'no hotel no money' or say 'I call police' immediately should they refuse to continue to drive you when they stop halfway to negotiate prices again or start to drive off when they want to negotiate with you prices so you can't get out of the taxi even if you disagree with the price. It really works, trust me. After that incident, the next day, Darren and I went to MBK and at the taxi stand, we took a taxi and the taxi driver started to drive off and quote a price off the meter. Immediately, Darren said firmly 'No. Meter or else I call police' and he pointed at his phone. Scared, the taxi driver immediately turn on the meter and drove us to our hotel. Ironically, he also ended up driving us to the Airport from our Hotel. I realised then that threatening them does not necessarily mean 'spoiling relations'. They won't be angry and not want to do your business just because you threatened them. They simply want to see if you can be bullied and be taken advantage of. If you can't, no hard feelings but more business dealings can be made in future. You just gotta let them know who's the boss. (Taxi from Pratunam to Suvarnabhumi Airport = 550 Baht including road tolls)

3. Confirm the negotiated price/meter before getting into the taxi. Don't let the inviting phrase 'come.. come' by taxi drivers entrap you to enter the taxi before negotiating the price. Anyway, if you have confirmed the price prior to entering the taxi and they still pull a fast one on you, TIPS NO. 1 and 2 still apply.

WEATHER: Sunny when I went. 

PRICE: Prices are in general, cheaper in Bangkok than in Singapore; defo a shopping and food haven for tourists who seek this. Previously, bargaining was quite common. Now, it is getting tougher to bargain almost everywhere as prices start to get higher and everyone seems to have fixed prices. So for those of you looking and loving to bargain, be prepared to be less successful in general these days.

To change money, go to SUPER RICH Thailand located at Pratunam as it has the best exchange rates. We compared to it to a few exchange rates like the one near Platinum Fashion Mall, MBK and the Airport, and trust us, SUPER RICH is the BEST to change SGD dollars for Thai Baht. To get there, you have to cross a bridge along Ratchadamri Rd (Look at map below). There are a few Super Rich outlets there; not too sure if the exchange rates applies the same throughout but I remember the outlet we went to was in green colour.

SCENERY: Didn't been to much scenic areas except for Chocolate Ville which was really fun to take pictures at. The more recent cafes also have photo booth areas for you to take pictures. But other than that, within Bangkok area itself, there isn't much scenery. You might have to go a little further away to places like Hua Hin beach.

Thanks for taking the time to read my very detailed post! Feel free to post a comment to enquire about certain details and information (accuracy not guaranteed though heh).

For reference:

View here for Travel Diary to Bangkok, Thailand - Food & Places <-- Original blogpost 2015

View here for Tresses Review on JUNO Hair Salon 2016 <-- My review on my hair experience while holidaying in Korea; for comparison

xx

Loves,

Nices