Some of my fav places to eat in Kuching - part 1

Humans are creatures of habits, aren't we not?  So am I.  I'd return to the same place over and over again.  I don't really like trying new places, in case it's a waste of my calories.  So, here' some places I like to go to eat in Kuching.

Morgan Pork Soup

When I was in Selangor, I "worked" in this a small Christian bookstore.  "worked" because I spend more than I earn, just to get to work!  And one of the luxury I let myself have is KL pork noodle soup.  I love Kuching's kolo mee version of Kueh Tiaw Soup, but some days, I just miss the KL style pork soup.  And I was glad when I saw this here.  It's one of the best rendition of the noodles.

This stall has been serving pork soup since a long time ago, but I've never heard of it till it moved to its current location; Geylang Kopitiam.  Its always very full of patrons that you need to share tables (which I have no problem with).  But with the current covid-19 situation, no worries about overcrowded places.  If you come later, just be prepared to wait.  We like to reach this place by 7.30am and immediately place our orders.  The first serving is at 8am.

Huge CHUNKS of minced pork, thin slices of meat and cubes of pork skin with your choice of noodles - the most popular, being small, slippery, kueh tiaw.  The bone broth comes from hours of boiling; not from MGS.  You can request to add egg, which is nicely done, not too soft; and definitely not hard boiled.  Don't forget to top up generously with cili.

This kopitiam has great kopi peng and teh C peng too.  Very kaw.

IPH Roasted Cafe Kuching

This is our go to place for roasted meat.  We love all the pork roasts - sio bak, char siew as well as the ribs.  The duck is great too.  Roasted chicken?  Same like others I reckon.  Business goes on well into lunch, but some of the popular meat (especially the ribs), will be gone by then.  We being kiasu, like to go at 8.30 / 8.45am to get the best cuts.  Noel likes the noodles here.  It's the closest resemblance to KL's wanton mee (but not quite).  Definitely no green pickled chili.

This is another kopitiam with great Kopi Peng and teh C Peng.

Kenyalang Wet Market Kuching - Tomato Kueh Tiaw

Seems that I like kueh tiaw eh?  I'd think so too :)  I like my tomato k.tiaw like this.  Not too thick.  Not too sour.  Mild, with sweet and sour taste.  My must have?  Slices of Char Siew.  And with Chili and vinegar poured on top.  There are only 3 places in Kuching that I know of that sales like this - Hui Sing Hawker Center (only opens at night), Bintawa market (too far to go) and Kenyalang Market.

Hui Sing is where the stalls that I grew up with serves now, so that's a given why it's my favorite.  I used to work in Bintawa area, so that's how I know the one in Bintawa and Kenyalang - because I go for my fortnightly wet marketing there (as an adult).  I am usually very early, so after getting all my supplies, I will go up to the next floor for self reward.  The place used to be jam-packed with the early risers (read:  Ah Kong and Ah Ma).  But with the social distancing regulation, some tables has been blocked.

Go to stall No. 37 Hap Hap Hin for Tomato K.Tiaw / Cripsy Noodles.

Go to stall No. 17 Ngiap Kiang for Fried Noodles - please order Mee & K.Tiaw campur, masin, pedas.  Be ready to wait.  He prepares and fries his noodles religiously.

There's another stall with good porridge and good coffee - I'll update the numbers / name when I go there next.  There's other things to eat too - cucur pisang (my fav overriped pisang tanduk), yu cha kueh, a huge variety of kuehs etc).

I come here at 5ish in the morning.  They are opened from 4am till lunch.

Ah... last but not least on today's post... 

Wood Lam Cafe (old immigration) 

This is another place we grew up with.  There used to be a laksa stall that serves, to me, the best laksa in town during that time.  But one of the daughters got into trouble with loan sharks and they had to close up.  A sad day for many of us.

The kueh chap here is good, mild in taste, with a kick of sambal.  Pre-MCO, we had to wait HOURS (well, about 30 - 45 mins), for this bowl of goodness.  But now, it doesn't take as long.  But don't expect to have this "early".  He usually drives in at 7.15 and sets up, maybe ready to serve at 7.30, though his signage says 7am.  He is very particular with his cuts and do not cut ahead of time, and he does it meticulously.  So yes, the wait is painful, with a sweet ending once you put it in your mouth.

But thank God, whilst waiting, you can curb your hunger with this!  This is THE BEST cha kueh tiaw in my books.  Smallish cubes, with crunchy sides.  The usual radish cakes outside are usually huge cubes, all soggy, but these although it looks too "broken" are absolutely delish.  There are surprising bites of tang chai, lots of eggs and tonnes of crunchy ends.  I have no patients to pick it bit by bit, so I usually just use whatever spoon I have on hand to gobble it up.

The uncle who serves this now has knee pain from the long hours of standing.  Now he sits on a high stool to fry these beautiful golden morsel.

We usually get here by 7am, the cha kueh would be ready to serve by 6.30am.  Serves decent coffee.  Kopi-O peng is nice too.  Not too kaw, not too pok (thin).

As you can see, these food I've mentioned are the food / taste that I grew up with.  Some will need me to wait (for up to an hour), but still, once the craving is there, there's not turning back.  I normally will just endure the wait with a happy smile on my face :)

Till my next entry of fav food in Kuching!

They Exist... but always remember our God is bigger...

I don't normally write about hike stuff in here, because it's much easier to just upload in Insta.  After all, the photos are all in the phone and I don't need to download and upload it into the blog.  I guess I can update the blog from the phone, but it's too small to bother with.  But for this, I wanted to write it in here, as a reminder of what happened, what could happened and to never take my hikes for granted.

This is the beginning of the Red & Blue trail.  Apparently, the name of the waterfall is just... "waterfall"

Anyways... Date:  19 July 2020.  Sunday afternoon.  We actually planned to go to Santubong small waterfall (loop track) for a first hike for the girls.  It is an easy hike of 30 minutes with a beautiful waterfall with a nice cooling pond at the bottom.  To our dismay, when we arrived at 1.30pm, the notice said it was closed and they only open at 8am - 12noon, with a maximum capacity of 50 pax per day on both the summit and loop trail.  Bummer.  So we decided to try Permai's Blue and Red Trail.  By the time we got there and registered, it was already 2.30pm, but the ladies at the counter let us in anyways, as long as we get back to the counter by 5pm.  She said it takes 1 hour to get to the waterfall, but the sign says 90 minutes!  We had faith that we could do it of course.

This rope bridge is almost the end of the trail to the waterfall.  Almost reaching the waterfall.  I think one can easily hike from the bottom, i.e. through the small river, but for the thrill of it, one gotta go through this 😉

Bear in mind, this is the first hike for the teenage girls, so we took it really slow.  And 4/6 of us got out of breath, even needing inhaler (asthma) at some point.  It definitely took us 90 minutes to get there.  We started at 2.30 and arrived at the waterfall at 4pm.  Bear in mind, we needed to ARRIVE back at the reception counter by 5pm.  The lady at the counter said, the journey back would take 30 minutes.  So, we said we'd hang till 4.30 and head home.

In my secondary school days, I was in Girl's Guide and my brother was in the Boys' Scout.  I can say that we both were pretty good at it, both being Company Leader by the time we got to Form 4.  And yes, these camping stuff is nothing new to us.  I felt so happy when I managed to get some solid fuel from the Army Supply shop, dug out our messtin from Dad's police days and managed to light up the fire.  Truth be told, I'm not sure if we can start fire here - is Kem Permai under Santubong National Park as well? (as in no burning etc?)  I don't know... but I won't do this again with the solid fuel (without the "metal cooker" a.k.a. the box to burn the fuel in).  I now have the burner that uses butane gas, so that would be better as we will not be harming nature (by using rocks as our base)

Everyone was ecstatic when we saw the waterfall, although it was small and "skinny", but because it was so late in the evening, we had the whole place to ourselves.  The ladies quickly took off their tudung and everyone was in the water before long.  And because everyone knew I carried stuff to cook Maggi at the fall, we started fire soon after.  But it took SOOOOO long for the water to boil!!! In YouTube tutorials that I religiously watched before this trip, water would boil within 7 minutes.  Mine?  Took more than 20 mins!! And that's with HOT water! (Yes, I carried hot water in thermos to cook the maggi).  So the whole cooking and eating process took almost an hour. We made Milo too, and since it was piping hot, it was hard for some of us to eat and drink fast.

Here we are... the six of us.  It was the first time for the two teenage girls with glasses.

Everyone was still enjoying the water, so I told them that we need to start hiking out at 5pm.  But... we only started to change clothes and clear up at 5pm!  So we started the journey up at 5.15pm.  I'd be lying if I said that I was not nervous.  I kept thinking in my head, what do I have in my bagpack that could sustain us should night fall before we reached the reception counter.  Torchlight - yes, I have 2, checked.  Chocs - yes, I still have 6 small packets, checked.  Whistle - yes, I have 1, checked.  Lighter - yes, I have 2, checked.  First aid kit - checked.  I normally have Noel on hikes with me, so both our bags would be sufficiently loaded (although it would look very bulky and weighs a ton), but this time I hiked alone with the group, so I didn't think I was prepared enough.  Where WAS noel when I needed him huh?

The 90 degree hike up immediately after the waterfall.

The hike back began with a 90 degrees hike up with rope trail.  We actually did pretty fine on this one.  Then it was a continuous walk down the hill.  A never.ending.walk.  In the middle of the trail, we heard a male voice, we knew that there was no other people on that trail with us, but I thought that it must be the ranger or something like that, maybe they were looking for us, since we were supposed to be out by 5pm.  Then, the sound changed to something akin to a frog and THEN it changed to the sound of a wildboar.  Because my teammates were all muslim, the one leading the pack immediately turned around looking all white, aghastly claiming under her breath, "I'm scared!".  Trying to keep my cool, I picked up a dead branch and tossed it to the source of the sound, hoping that if it were wildboars, they would run.  but no footsteps, nothing.  I clapped my hands very loudly a few (more than a few) times, just to shoo them away, but again... silence in the forest.

Didn't get a single decent photo on this trip.  No Noel to bully to be photographer.

So we moved on.  It.was.spine-chilling.  I told the team, we had to pick up our pace, because nightfall is upon us, but I'm not too sure why, maybe the girls were tired already, maybe they were unsure of their steps going downhill, but they were really really slow!  Almost like walking in the mall!  I almost cried because I was sooooo scared that we'd still be in the forest by night, that we would end up like one of those stories we hear about going round and round the same place.  I kept looking at the markers on the trees and I thank God that it was a different tree every time.  After going downhill for a bit and confident that there wasn't any beast in front, I moved to the back of the troop again, my usual place, (unless there's Fread.  Then, he'd normally be behind me, because I'm the slowest and he will make sure that I'm ok, God bless his kind heart).  That's when I started to hear the rustling of leaves and branches to my right side.  As if someone (s) were walking beside us, no, not one, there were more than one of "them".  I kept looking, trying to see if there were any animals, but there were none!

The person we asked to take our photos were REALLY bad at it.  I think we took more than 20 shots here, we even gave her the EXACT position, yet, every single one turned out really bad.  Again. where was Noel when I need him huh?

After what seemed like ages (in reality, it could have been about 10 minutes), I spoke to "it"... whatever it was... "Are you following us to ensure we get back and get out safe?  Thank you for coming with us.  Thank you for teman us down.  Thank you for lending us your place.  Thank you for making sure we will be safely out.  Thank you for being with us..." and all sorts of thank yous, which I did mean with all my heart.  And to my relief, the rustling stopped.  After that I kept praying in the Spirit, I knew that only God can protect us now.  I kept on praying that the girls in front did not hear the same things I did, and most importantly, that no one gets a hysteria attack.  Being in an all Muslim group, that is what I fear the most, because they are prone to hysteria attack and that I won't know what to do, should that happen.  (A day after, when our hearts were not too unsettled anymore, we checked on each other, and yes, every single one of us heard the sounds, but no one dared to say anything at that time)

We walked as fast as our legs could carry us as we got back to the beach at about 6.15pm.  An hour take to a track out that was supposed to be 30 minutes.  We headed to the beach to catch the sunset but because it was too early and the ladies wanting to be home before Maghrib, we left at 6.30pm.  When we checked out at the counter, we saw that our names were highlighted already, and the team was on standby to look for us should we fail to check out by 7pm.

That's my legs.  Feeling so happy we got out Maggi and hot Milo.  We ended up making 2nd round of Milo after this, and given enough time, we would have cooked another round of Maggi, but we didn't have the time.

When I told the story to a Muslim friend of mine, who is stationed at Pusat Ko-K in Santubong, he said according to his experience, the sound of wildboar is Jembalang Tanah and you should just walk ahead without looking back.  He also said we should carry "protection" when we go into the forest, such as having "Kayu Hujan Panas".  Go Google it.  Apparently, it's a wood that would make you superior to the animals of the forest and the spirit world.

Whilst tempted, as I reflected, I remembered a chapter in The Long Awakening (by Baru Bian) that tells of the existance of the spirit world, of how we know and acknowledge they exist, but that our God is bigger than they are and is the ultimate one above all.  So no, I do not want to carry any protection apart from the protection of the Almighty.  I will depend on no articles created by Him, but only depend on Him, the creator of all things.

I often wondered what might have caused this "attack".  Several things came to mind - 1)  It was with a group of Muslim - and it was Asar time - a time they believed they shouldn't be in these mystic places.  2)  2 of the group members were having their period, and they had just jumped in the water albeit.  3)  Perhaps I wasn't supposed to cook (using "their" utensil)?  4)  I boasted in the beginning of the trail.  The lady at the reception counter said it would be a one hour hike, and I told my team, that the one-hour time was because she was big sized (bigger than me), and that we'd do better, in lesser time as we are smaller and supposedly fitter.  It's a combination of many things, but above all, I hope I will remember to keep a reign on my tongue next time.

I had dreams of this for several nights after, even a week after, when my sister in law and I spoke again about this, that night, the scare came back in my dreams and I had to play worship music and turn on the lights to get "it" out again.  Actually it still gives me the creep till today, but somehow, it doesn't stop the hiking itch and I'm ready to venture out to Santubong again.  But I promised myself that I will never, ever go out from the jungle after 4.30pm after this.  Once is enough.

Tuhan kita besar bah kan.

Food is my love language

Yes la... I "love" my body so much that I feed it with so much food!  😁  I'm just gonna post these here, because I think they're so pretty and at some point, I feel healthy when I eat them!  Haha.  Posting here also, because well, it's private.  No one reads the blog anymore (or rarely does), so I have the freedom to say whatever I want.

Date:  25 June 2020.  
Location:  Hock Lee Hotel and Residences (Formerly known as 360 Hotel and then M Hotel)  Tower B.
Such beautiful view to makan to... Blessed to be able to use this room for the morning. 
I think  I will get this room on my birthday.  This breakfast came with the room.
Delivered.  Because.  MCO.

Such beatiful natural light!  I NEED to have large windows in my house next time. 
No, I didn't eat the sausages.  Did try a bite.  Yucks.  I nuked the egg yolks to cook it better. 
I can't accept this kind of runny yolks when eggs are fried.  
(Note:  The room comes with a kitcheatte which includes fridge, microwave oven, stove, pots and pans, plates and cutleries too)

2 hours before that acah-acah western breakfast, I had my kampung breakfast.  So satisfying.

Date:  24 June 2020.  Location:  Home
Mom planted these Itip leaves.  And we started making our own nuba laya.
Our hands are not that immune to the heat, so we can't get a good perfect nuba laya shape.
But I think we''ve nailed the texture.

Mom has also started making kelupis.  So we dont have to be like vultures the next time we are at Lun Bawang gatherings.

I dont know since when I like these... but yes, they are super! 
Terung Bakar (on the stove)  Smokey.  Tasty.  Sweet.  Even on it's own.
but add some belacan + cili + kicap, that's it.  You're gone.

Date:  21 June 2020.  Location:  In the car
Father's Day.  Sunday.  I had to be in church by 7am.  So I woke up at 4am to cook these for Father's Day lunch for dad.
I don't buy lamb anymore.  Freaking expensive.  For this time, I got 2.7kg at RM97.  Gila kah apa?!
But for dad, just get it lah.
I had to visit some elderly parents of my friend's after church service, so I tapau-ed these to eat in the car.  Noel went out with his friends that day.
The penyaram - mom made.  to prove to my SIL and I that she knows to make when we failed terribly.  Haha

Date:  22 June.  Location:  Home
I wanted to eat fried bihun with chicken curry.  But I also wanted bihun sambal.  So I kept a portion of the bihun to cook bihun sambal for myself.  Loaded with tonnes of veg and very spicy, hoping to fend off any vultures (aka Noel and my nephew Adel).  But the strategy didn't work.  They ate more than I did.

When we woke up that day, I asked the boys what they wanted to eat for lunch.  They said bihun with curry.
But, I didn't have any curry powder in the house and was lazy to go out.  Since it was still early in the morning (9ish), I ordered online.  We targeted to eat at 1.30.  Come 12, still no show on our delivery.  We panicked.  So I cooked the bihun first.  In case we got too hungry.  The boys refused any other menu.
1pm honk honk!  Yes, the curry powder is here!  Cook Cook!  2pm.  Lunch.

Mom makes Bak Chang too.  This time, we requested her to pleaseeee put in more meat.
Today 25 June is Dragon Boat Festival Day.  a.k.a bak chang day.

Date:  23 June 2020.  Location:  Home
My first clean meal after a long long time.  Air Fried Fish, Blanched Long Beans.
This was the day after i feast on the bihun and curry.  I went up 400g.  Crazy.

This is how you char the brinjal on the stove.  Till it gets really char.  Yums

OK, that's all for now.  Bangkok post has to wait.  MCO post has to wait.  I'm just plain lazy.

Stay safe.  God bless.

TB: Blessed Bangkok Trip (September 2019) - Day 2

Long overdue... let's continue about my blessed trip to BKK in September 2019.

Day 2.  This is the day that I will be going on solo trip to the Floating Market and the Train Market.  Jane and the others have been here (not once) before, so they are not interested to spend 4 hours (to and fro) in a van to go there.  But, it being my first time to BKK, of course I had to do the touristy stuff that I've always seen on TV right?  Right.  And I thank God that I am not the type who will shy away from solo journeys / meals.  As a matter of fact, I was looking forward to do this on my own.  So liberating!

So, early on Day 2, the gang woke up super early and were so kind to go with me to Siam Paragon to catch the van to the markets.  Jane helped me to buy my ticket on Klook and the meeting point is at Siam Paragon.  We were VERY early.  TOO early.  Haha.  Forgive me friends for dragging you out so early, just because I am kiasu like that.  I know... I know... I've gotta learn to chill... hmmmm... NOT!

We asked around Siam Paragon for places to have breakfast.  Guess what?  They pointed us to 7-11.  Haha... It would seem to me that Thais, or at least Bangkok-ians don't really eat breakfast.  True?  I don't know.  It's just that I don't see many shops like in our towns.  5am breakfast places.  Or perhaps, I was just in the wrong area; the urban areas.

Because we were super early, we googled nearby places where we can have a good, substantial breakfast.  So we found this place famous for its porridge.  Porridge?  Really?  Mana2 lah.  Since there's no wantan mee available, porridge pun boleh.  So, we took the train to this area, walked a bit and came to Prince Congee.  The line!  My goodness.  But the taukeinio was gracious enough to set up a table for us in the alley and while waiting, Elvis and I crossed the road to go to 7-11 and grab their coffee and tea.  I grabbed some sandwiches for my long journey ahead too.  Have I told you how much I love Thai's 7-11?  Then, our congee was delivered to us.  Hangus / Hangit.  Haiyah.  Verdict?  Boleh lah.  Won't come back running for seconds.

On the way to Prince Congee, we also came across this roasted shop.  Another popular shop.  Should have eaten here.  They had wantan mee.  But then, Elvis won't have anything to eat, since he is SDA.  But we tapau-ed some meat to be eaten at the congee place while waiting.  The meat?  Not too bad, but not mind blowing good.  Edible.

 After breakfast, we took the train back to Siam to wait for my van.  Even after going all the way out for breakfast and coming back, we were still early.  After waiting for a bit, the driver arrived and off I went.  There were 2 groups of people with me.  One group were aunties (slightly older than me) from Malaysia and another group of youngsters from Thailand.  The aunties couldn't comprehend how I can travel and enjoy this trip alone.  I just plucked in my earphones and watch my movie, read my book etc along the 2 hours journey.  Bliss.

The first destination was the Floating Market.  Because I was solo, it was easy for me to get the front seat.  Classic kiasu aunty syndrome.  As I was getting in the boat, I kept thinking how on earth I'm going to get out and this that this isn't an ideal vacay spot / item for the elderly.  It was not easy to navigate the entrance into the boat.

I reckon you can read more about the floating market online.  It was basically a market where some merchandise were sold on the boat.  Others, by the riverside.  The customers; us, where all on the boat (for now).

I'm not sure if the helmsman of the boat has affiliated sellers of whom he will stop his boat for us to buy goods, but if you are interested on what the other boat was selling, you can just tell him to stop.  Of course we had to order the coconut ice cream and me, being the carnivor that I am, ordered moo ping.  The moo ping were grilled fresh on the boat.  It was delicious!

We did not stop at too many boats, they generally sell the same things.  And I reckon the stalls at the riversides also sales at the same price.  Perhaps you can get cheaper stuff at the night market, or at Chatuchak! (which I will go on the next day).

After the boat ride, we returned back to the van and was taken to another side of the market and were stopped there for lunch.  I was so happy to have this time to wander around on my on.  You must remember, I love any body of water.  Even if the river looked like cha yen, it didn't smell (at least it didn't smell that  bad to me).  I saw a lady with piping hot noodle soup so I sat at the riverbank, and ordered a bowl from here.  I love the soup.  I love the slippery noodles.  I love the heat.  I love the sourness.  I love the piping hotness.  I love it!  And the authenticity and feel of sitting at the riverbank whilst slurping the noodles.  Man, priceless.  Tell me again, how did I get so blessed to be given this trip?

At the appointed time, we all returned the the van onwards to our next destination.  The Train Market.  It was super crowded, slow stroll (don't expect to go fast) but orderly.  We all waited for the train while looking around.  Mostly local goods.  Can't really compare the prices, I can't convert the price fast enough!

From far, you will hear the hooting of the train.  And then the action starts.  The grocers will slowly and coolly pull back their items in to make way for the train.  It was very entertaining to see how cool the people were, I mean, they have been doing this for years, so of course they know it's safe.

I stood at the crowded five foot way with a group of Irish tourist.  They were all cheerful and sang song as the train passedby.  It was fun.  After the whole thing, I made my way back to the van and it's time to head back to town.  It was all on time.  I happily pop in my earphones again and read & watched my movie.  I was hungry on the way, so I took my 7-11 sandwich.  The aunties were of course not happy that I weren't socialising and kept trying to make small talk.  Bless their kind hearts!

I texted Jane that I was almost back in town.  It was raining cats and dogs and the guys were heading to Jim's again for fitting and measurement.  Jane told me to stay put and that they will head over to me.

So I hanged at Siam, and went down to the food area in search of what Fread and Togs deems the best banana fritters in the world (or was it in BKK?).  Anyways, I found, and indeed it was very nice.  The best part of this mall is that they have this authentic thai food market near the supermarket and I had a field day looking and drooling.

I was going to meet the gang for dinner, of course I did not want to waste my stomach space on nonsense.  But I did buy some interesting things to try.  What's visiting without trying local food right?

Then, I crosses over to some other mall in search of some other 7-11 which I've read online as being more special than the rest.  Couldn't find it.  At that time, Jane asked me to cross back to Siam Paragon to meet them there for dinner.  Something that amazed me while crossing here and there was the emergence of these shelter walkway to keep the public from being wet!  So considerate and so... maju!  Win for Thailand!

I waited for the guys at the food court and walked around for a bit.

There were so many local delights, we really don't have to venture out far to get a taste of the local food.

All of these stalls are the "popular" ones.  Try google them.  I reckon what they are doing is similar to Hutong Foodcourt, Lot 10.  Getting all the best to be under one roof.

Eventhough for this trip we said we wouldn't "prepare" much, one of the things we of course had to research on was food.  And in one of those reading, I came across a shop called Thipsamai, which had according to reviews, the BEST orange drink in the world.  I was pleasantly surprised to see this selling here!  I didn't have to venture into the unknown to find this shop in order to get a sip.

This bottle of the BEST orange juice costs 199TBH.  Which is about RM30.  RM30 for a bottle of orange juice.  REALLY?  Being on a tight budget, I didn't want to spend unnecessarily, so I turned and turned the food court debating if I should buy this.

Of course I did!!  I had to!  One's gotta taste what they claim as the BEST orange juice right?  Bought a bottle, pop open the lid, drank one gulp.  Silence.  Selah.  Heaven.  It was indeed, IMHO, THE BEST orange juice I've tasted in my life so far.  It was so good that you wanna drink the whole bottle on the spot, but so expensive that you have to remind yourself to drink slowly and savour it.

It was so good that when the guys came, and though I've poked them numerous times to buy it and try, they weren't so interested because it was so pricey, I just had to buy it and make them drink to attest to it's goodness.  Yes.  They agreed.  BUT OF COURSE.  I told you!

We all ordered different types of food, for us to try there and there between us.

Oh, it's day 2 already and I forgot to tell you the ordering system of the food court in BKK.  I haven't gone to all, but it seems that most (if not all) operates in the same manner.  You've gotta go to the counter and purchase like a "credit card" with whatever value you want, and then go and order at the stalls.  The stalls will deduct the price from the card.  Repeat.  Reload if necessary.  At the end of your meal, if you still have money in the card, you can just go back to the counter to return the card and claim back your money.

I'm not sure why they do it this way.  Perhaps it is to minimise cash handling at the stalls.  A bit troublesome if you ask me.  But at least you can get back your money.  And the service of loading / reloading / giving back is fast.  So, it's all good actually.

To be honest, after 5 months, I don't really remember what went on during that time.  I remember a good whole chunk of it, but forgot some of it.  So... I might miss some stuff there and there.

After having our fill, we decided to go to MBK to 1)  buy a silver ring for Noel and 2) to buy goodies to bring home (nuts, pork rolls etc).  Here it is, another of those pop-up covered walkway.  Super love!  We went round and round MBK, they got what they wanted for food stock to bring home and silver rings were blardy expensive, so I did not get for Noel then.  

One thing I noticed about Thailand is how much the people love, respect, adore and worship their King.  The previous King, Bhumibol Adulyadej was so well loved that the whole country went into mourning for one year.  Every programme was cancelled.  Here in BKK, the King's portrait is everywhere including the malls.

After roaming around at MBK, we decided to call it a day and go back to our hotel.  Fread dropped by to buy McD Pork burger.  I have always said I must try and also bring home the pork burger from McD for Noel but after contemplating, I decided against it because we still had another day to fly back.  Didn't want it to rot, and felt bad to try it without buying for Noel, so decided not to buy and try for myself too.  On the way back to the hotel, of course we had to stop at 7-11 and get our supper!  That's it.  Day 2 done!