Bangkok- Roam freely & appreciate the Terrain

Just roam.

“Let’s go Bangkok to 拜拜.” I told Serene. “And while we are there we will try to do some running, and go for your favourite Ai Sa Waan massage beside the hotel. And we will eat your Deep Fried Snapper.”

The BTS brought us to Chit Lom BTS Station early this round, arriving at 8pm.  Plenty of time to have a nice dinner.  Determined to have her Deep Fried Snapper at The Terrace, Serene ensured her wish was obliged.  Disappointment was apparent when the young waitress at Central World Terrace waved her hand and gestured with her demure expression that they had run out of fish, chicken and quite a few of the items on their menu at 8pm on a Thursday night. In retrospect, we should have dropped off at Siam Station and walked to Inter Restaurant for a nice sumptuous  dinner. 

The VIDEO. Click on image below for the VIDEO.

Traditional Thai massage at Ai Sa Waan

What wasn’t compromised was her desire for a one and a half hour Traditional Thai massage next door at Ai Sa Waan massage. With a 10% discount coupon from the hotel counter, the final price of 675 Baht (S$27.60) for a 90 minute Traditional Thai massage to lull us into dreamland was enjoyed to the utmost.  This was my first time going to Ai Sa Waan, although Serene had done massages a couple of times there. And she was right. This Traditional Thai massage here was better than the Foot Massage at Foot Master in Amarin Plaza. Granted Foot Master was a foot reflexology institute and specialised in foot reflexology, Japanese style.

The uniquely Thai way of using all the sharp and poking joints and body parts of the masseues to prod and provide resistance while contorting one’s joints and limbs was in essence like doing extreme stretching in yoga.  This was much more appreciated after I had studied and understood the need for flexibility and embarked on an aggressive quest to stretch all my stiff joints to reduce injuries.

Little wonder why all the aged Thais are still so nimble, in my opinion. Between Muay Thai and Traditional Thai massage, no elderly Thais would be caught dead with stiff joints!

The two ladies, in their gentle Thai way, laughingly ignored both of our ‘eeek eeek aaah aaahs’ and proceeded to lengthen our muscle fibres by kneading the knots out of them.  I didn't remember a moment of more than a couple of seconds when there wasn't any groaning emitting from us.  At the end of the 90 minutes, we panted and heaved a great sigh of relief, well-contented that the pain we suffered would translate into great benefit for the next day.

Serene struggling to walk down the steps after the massage.

Night after night we subjected ourselves to the massage. The general standard of this massage centre was very consistent. But of course I was doing an experiment with human reactions to rewards. The first night our tips of 80 Bahts per masseuse for the 90 mind sessions (total of 1620 Bahts for two of us) brought about luke-warm reactions.
The second night I placed 170 Bahts for each masseuse in the hands of the counter girl even before the start and the two ladies, one of them number 15 by the name of Phy, came in and very cheerfully worked mightily hard on both of us (total package for the second night was 2810 Bahts for two hours as Serene’s was some body scrub followed by aroma therapy).
The third night, a different set of massueses.  My older masseuse was perhaps a tad too tired, while the younger one, number 19 by the name of Lay, worked Serene’s joints and muscles thoroughly.  Nevertheless a tip of 120 Bahts each for the two hour sessions given at the end of it was in appreciation of their hard work. 

But this experiment certainly has given me the gauge to what amount made them happy and that it was always a great idea to present them with happiness right at the start.

Moving forward my plan was simple- if I ever had the chance and the fortune of taking a trip to Bangkok ever again- we would train in the morning and massage at night, daily for the whole duration.

Discovering Lumphini Park

The buns Serene wisely bought from Mo Chit BTS Station the day before and the 4 litre jumbo gallon of water from 7-Eleven at 7 Bahts, made a simple yet filling breakfast.  

8:30am.  We started our run despite not capturing GPS on our Garmin watches yet.  Slowly jogging down past Erawan Shrine down along Ratchadamri road southwards toward Lumphini park. The sky was cloudy and overcast.  Quite a good weather.

Serene’s feet were aching on this first run, and she was feeling breathless even just climbing up the steps to the Skywalk.  Persevered she did and with big drops of sweat she made it to Lumphini Park, 1.7km from the hotel.  The crowds of makeshift stalls and the laughing high-pitched chatters from the smiling hawkers at the entrance to the park attracted her attention, and her urge to procure a packet of some fruits after the run around the park.

Serene so happy to find pineapples at 35 Baths for one.

At 15 Bahts per bottle these chrysanthemum drinks were nice.

“How come we don’t have such nice park to run in back home?” asked Serene, obviously enjoying the park, sweat glistening on her face.

The sun, high up in the mid-morning sky beat down. Young Thai men and women run round in an anti-clockwise direction round the lake in the middle. An old style chime clock tower and a Chinese-style pavilion marked the park. Several lovely sculptures dotted as landmarks.  We were impressed to see cyclists, both locals and farangs taking onto the cycling paths going in circles.  Beside the lake, small groups of old folks in long pants and cotton shirts arranged themselves in rows doing Taiji.  Immersed totally in their Chinese newspapers were other old men, obviously of Chinese descent, seated on the many benches amongst the landscaped grass. I was happy to see farangs enjoying their runs side by side with the locals. One round the park on the designated asphalt running path was around 1.7km.

“It is known that if you happen to see a monitor lizard coming out of the lake, then it’s your lucky day.” I told Serene.  Searched and searched we did, until finally as we approached the entrance again we saw one just peering out from the surface of the water.

The run was nice and slow. Literally zone 2 pace. I shared with a Serene what I read in the book by the Japanese author Hiroaki Tanaka called “Slow Jogging”.  In this book, this old Japanese marathoner expounded the benefits of just slow jogging to maintain health and to lose weight.

Slow jogging means running at such a slow pace that you can talk and even hum a song.  When you first start, at this pace you may even be over taken by many people who are walking.  But don’t worry about it. Just enjoy the run at this speed because what is important is to enjoy the run and look forward to it, rather than to go into it with apprehension.

The calories burnt by slow jogging is twice the amount as when walking the same distance.  And interestingly enough, the calories burnt for the same distance run, be it a slow jog or a fast one, is the same.  Thus for older people who need to be extra careful about injuries and need much more time for recovery as compared to a younger runner, a slow jog is one of the best ways of exercising.  Just keep the heart rate at zone 2, which for many will be just around 120/min and below.

“That’s what I have been telling you right from the start,” insisted Serene. “I just want to run to enjoy my own pace, and not to cheong one.”

The side pavement along Ratchadamri road back towards Erawan Shrine was nice and wide, passing by many services apartments and high class hotels.  This was a neighbourhood for many expatriates and foreigners who worked and lived here in Bangkok.  The shades from the trees along the side afforded us some reprieve from the heat.  Tourists strolled along the pavement, hand in hand.

We did another longer run at 9:30am on the next day, luckily, as Serene did not hear my protest first thing on this second morning declaring that we would not run, and dutifully prepared all the running clothing and shoes.  Reluctantly, but after a while gladly, I kicked myself out of bed and did another run with her.  Our second run to Lumphini Park took a different route, this time round through Wireless Road on the other side of the blocks, passing by the American Embassy, to reach the other entrance of the park. The weather on the second run was spectacular, under a lovely drizzle that never threatened to blow us into a heavy downpour.  The locals must have been very used to the drizzle.  They simply continued enjoying their run, unperturbed by the darkening sky.

Our lucky star must have been shining upon us as we spotted another monitor lizard sunning itself out on the grass.

On this second run our watches registered the GPS signals better and the distance clocked was around 7km.

These two runs have given us the confidence that running in Bangkok is so enjoyable.  Running in the morning, followed by crackling Traditional Thai massages at night really prepared us for another run the next day.  For once we finally experienced what the professional athletes enjoyed for decades.  It was truly like having your own physiotherapist in the team.  My plan was, if I ever were to come back to Bangkok again, and for a longer period of stay, I would do slow jogs daily followed by Thai massages every night.  It could be planned like an intensive one week of overseas training in preparation for races.  The mere thought of it was exciting, to say the least. 

Although many of the other parks are further away, I am determined to try out other routes around downtown Bangkok the next time we are here.

Praying at Erawan Shrine - for all my negative karmas

Every sentient being exists in ways in full accordance with its karmic forces. Positive deeds create merits while negative deeds entail negative karma.  There are no perfect beings, and we all suffer from ignorance and greed, as long as we are still striving to attain enlightenment.  I have had my share of negative karmas and even until today, I believe I am still committing negative deeds due to my ignorant nature.  My past negative karmas have time and time again, caught up with me and haunted me.  Suffering is a debilitating constant in my life.

Every time I come to offer my prayers to the Four Face Buddha, I pray for His Blessings for all my loved ones.  Ultimately I am of the opinion that my punishments would still be correspondingly severe in line with all my past negative deeds.

As the eight ornamented Thai dancers danced to the tinkle of the music and chanted every name of the members of my family, I couldn’t help but feel a deep pang of regret for all the crimes I have committed in this short life of mine.  Perhaps that is why the Catholics ask for forgiveness from the pastors and to be rid of their sins.

In the same vein, despite the magnitude of wrong deeds, I still prayed for enlightenment to right many of these in the hope that I could create some merits for the children and the family.  My life was half done.  What would be good was to just have a peaceful second half of my life.

Drinking (coffee) and eating in Bangkok

The bakery shop at Mo Chit BTS. Serene's favourite.

All the planned destinations for dining simply got chucked until the table once we started our trip. Certainly a good idea to have some plan, but plans must never be rigidly executed because fatigue and leg soreness invariably get in the way of the best intentions.  Thus I told Serene: “Let is just roam around freely and see where our feet take us to and wherever we are we will eat there.”

My favourite coconut ice cream on the left side. The other coconut red ruby dessert on the right. The Terrace.

 
So there went the famous local seafood zhi-Char stall Lek Seafood at Chong Nonsi BTS Station, so did our plan to try Lae Charoen seafood in Central World as it was closed for renovation. Grand Oishii at Siam Paragon was off the radar, as was Inter Restaurant, because we went nowhere near Siam Square this round.  Deep in my heart, I decided that our next trip to Bangkok we really need to get to these restaurants and stalls to have our meals.

A stuffy hot evening we sat at the periphery of Rod Fai Market...

... and enjoyed this sweet pan cake cream thingy.

For the first time we had street food at Rod Fai market at Srinakarin, 13km away from our hotel.

Grilled squid at Rod Fai market. Tasty!

fried squid omelette at Rod Fai.

Yours truly enjoying the fried squid omelette.

We had peng-kanged squid, some sweet pancake topped with cream, squid-omelette.  The only street food I had so often wanted to try but even today still hadn’t was the salt-covered garlic-stuffed fish left crispily-cooked on the grills.  Man, I am quite certain the next round in Bangkok I will sink my teeth into one of these.

I really wanted to eat this salted fish for 150 Bahts per fish at Rod Fai.  But the only hurdle between me and the fish was....... Serene

The Kway Jap stall at Rod Fai market

The innards.

The crispy pork belly.

"So what else you want to eat?" asked Serene, eyeing me suspiciously as I walked among the stalls. "Oooooh.. I know what you want to eat liao!"

And the first thing I saw was the crispy, crackling pork belly 三层肉.  And it turned out that the stall sells Thai Kway-Jap.  Despite Serene's customary refusal, I ordered two bowls and did she enjoy it! We literally whacked the Thai Kway-Jap with pig blood and crispy pork belly, which turned out to be unexpectedly delicious!

Kway Jap.

We haven't had pork blood for a long time!

Mung bean paste sweet dunno what thing at Rot Fai market.

The menu at The Terrace. Central World.

Our lunch on the second day did finally saw Serene’s highly-awaited Deep Fried Snapper materializing.  We ordered two for good measures and walloped them down.

The two servings of Deep Fried Snapper at The Terrace

Serene's favourite Tom Yam stall at Chatuchak weekend market!

The other meal that was on our radar was that small little local Thai stall located at the periphery of Chatuchak weekend market, where Serene craved for her Tom yam gung and the chicken wings.  We found it on the third day midday when we arrived at the Chatuchak Market.

This tiny little stall

The very small stall with barely enough stools and tables to sit 10 plus customers was a gem.  Serene knew precisely what to order.

Their Pad Thai.. not the best.  Soury.  But eatable.

Their Pineapple and mango smoothie - really good quality.

This tom yam is what we came all the way 13km for.

This crispy fried pork was aromatic.

The Deep fried pork and the chicken wings certainly were as good as ever, on top of the coveted Tom Yam soup. The Pad Thai from this stall was a little soury.  The mango and pineapple smoothies were the staple here.  Coconut ice cream were aplenty at Chatuchak but after a while they all tasted the same.

But this fried chicken took the Thai cake! Serene's favourite!

Torn between Mo Mo Paradise and Aka barbecue at Central World for dinner on the third night, I chose Aka. The meat remained delicious, especially the beef bacons and dory and the cuttlefish. The prawns were huge but relatively tasteless according to Serene. The meat kept coming as we ordered and topped off at the end by the potent small glass of bitter lemon.

The beef bacon was my favourite at Aka barbecue restaurant. Central World.

I regretted not ordering more of this delicious cuttlefish!

 

AKA barbecue restaurant. Central World.

What was a disappointment was the deteriorating service from the waitering stuff. But at 499 Bahts (S$20) for all you can eat premium buffet, if one was there for the meat, and already knew what one wanted to order, then there wouldn’t be much of a difficulty.

But if one wanted the undivided attention from the waiters and waitresses, for almost the same price, the shabu shabu dinner at Mo-Mo-Paradise would be a more desirable affair.

The menu at AKA. We ordered the 499 Baths premium barbecue.

In the previous trip, Fann and Questal mentioned that the cafe down the road from the hotel was very nice.  And so we tried.

 Click on the bottom image for an animated photo

A man did a high jump outside the cafe in the rain as we sat enjoying the coffee.

Heavy rain outside the cafe, as a man did a high and long jump in front while we were seated.
And on the third day, walking back just about reaching our hotel, the sky opened up and it rained cats and dogs.  What a beautiful opportunity to cuddle up in the cafe for a cuppa.

Aromatic coffee for 75 Bahts.

Forever Hungry Cafe.

To-ing and Fro-ing in Bangkok

Kat has given me some very good pointers on taking Grab cars or Grab taxis in Bangkok. Arriving in Don Mueang, we still preferred to use the time tested method of taking a 30 Baht per person A1 or A2 bus to Mo Chit BTS Station followed by a 44 Bahts per person train to Chit Lom Station. I took slightly more than an hour but since we just arrived we had all the time.

In the Grab car.. peak traffic jam even on the Expressway en route to Rot Fai Market Srinakarin

The traffic in Bangkok was terrible. And being in a vehicle placed one in an absolutely stuck position, many a times not moving in traffic jam. Thus I much preferred to take the BTS, although for more than two persons it made more economic sense to grabs Taxi, but one had to verbally remind and visually ensure that the driver used the meter instead of calling a fixed price for the trip.

That was why I liked Grab cars because it was a fixed price. For Grab taxis, and administrative charge of 20-25 Bahts may apply.  And if the traffic jams on the surface roads were bad, the driver would often suggest taking the expressway in which case you would need to pay an additional toll charge- 50 Bahts to most destinations 13-15km away but another additional70 Bahts if going to the Don Mueang airport by expressway all the way.  Still I found that the total bill of 321 Bahts on a metered Grab Taxi (including toll) for our return trip to the airport at 11am Sunday morning  very enjoyable- save me the trouble of changing to the bus and having to wait in anxiety when the buses were late, worried about missing the flight check-in.

Communicating with our Grab driver

In fact for our trip to Rod Fai market at Srinakarin 13km away from our hotel, we took a Grab car to and fro and gladly paid the 50 Bahts toll. Because although one could take a BTS to Udom Suk Station one still needed to take a taxi to Rod Fai.  The trip to Rot Fai at 4:30pm when the Traffic was at its peak cost us 325 Bahts (excluding the toll) and the trip back at 9:30pm cost us 226 Bahts (again not including the toll), both on Grab cars.  We were getting the hang of taking Grab cars in Bangkok. Finally.

The only place that I would still prefer to take the BTS was to the Chatuchak weekend Market because it was too easy for us- Chit Lom BTS Station was right in front of our hotel and it just went right to Mo Chit, where the weekend market was.  It would be a shame not to take the BTS.

Markets and more markets

Bangkok is famous for all her marketplaces - rows and rows of packed stalls displaying and selling their wares in densely arranged compounds.  These markets were where the locals would gather to barter and trade but had since evolved into markets where the local small businessperson make a living. Even more so, the latest night market, namely the newer Rod Fai (not the older and bigger Rod Fai at Srinakarin Road), had a good number of young Thais selling their stuffs, a good way for the younger generation to run their own retail businesses.

Chatuchak market nowadays is inundated with foreigners.  The only Thais are the stall keepers.

Chatuchak weekend market, right at Mo Chit BTS Station had been around for many years, and nowadays one would find more foreigners than locals thronging the aisles of this stuffy and flavourful market of literally thousands of stalls under thatched roof. I never managed to make sense of which section sold what despite reading the coloured map.  But Serene simply just loved to roam the periphery which held stalls that sold what she loved - clothes.  And of course he favourite Tom Yam and chicken wing stall.  We didn’t spend too much time in Chatuchak on the Saturday of this trip, because she didn’t manage to find the singular most important item she set out to find- the forest green slim neck tie for Kairen, but instead acquired quite a few pieces of blouse for herself.

At the periphery of Chatuchak market

Rod Fai market at Srinakarin Soi, was a different story. This was our first time there, and as it was a night market, we arrived around 5pm, just before it started turning dark and the crowd started coming in. What was different was Rod Fai here catered almost solely to the local crowds.

Rot Fai market - every row got things to buy one!

And the things were also cheap... and in many ways more bargainable than Chatuchak.  I liked the fact that as we zig-zagged our way through the snaking lane, every other lane we found something to buy, be it a S$27 watch, a whole heap of tempered glass screen protectors at S$4, or a silicon case for my iPhone 7 Plus at $2, or a whole pile of boxer shorts at 3 pieces for $4, and socks at 7 pieces for $4.

Boxer shorts? Not for me.

The fish slippers at Rod Fai Market!

Serene totally busied herself and at the end of the rampage, still had the galls to said Rod Fai was ‘so-so’ only. In my opinion, Rod Fai was a good introduction as it was significantly smaller and cooler than Chatuchak, but no less stuffy as both of us navigated the market with huge droplets of sweat hanging from every pore.

The facial mask girl at Rod Fai.

The iPhone screen protector and case girl in Rod Fai.

What other markets would we explore?  For me, I definitely would want to go back to Chatuchak again but to start much earlier, maybe about 8-9am, and try to walk through all the lanes.  And I would like to experience the other newer and nearer Rot Fai market.

One last Mango smoothie at Rod Fai before going back.

Hotel staff

This must be the third or fourth time we were back to the same hotel and after a while the hotel staff also got to know us.

“You go exercise??” asked an astonished Charlita when she saw us coming back from our run.

“Yes. Here in Thailand we ate too much,” I joked.

The extra large Kat, the bilateral arms-tattooed Charlita, and the bespectacled Kalaya were all friendly and helpful once they got to know us.

The other night shift girl Woot, with an eye patch on one eye, was the blur blur one.

Still, for a small little budget hotel like this, we could not ask for more.

This trip consolidated several things for us.  One is, we can actually plan to do runs to Lumphini park or even explore Bangkok further every morning when the pedestrian crowds haven't started to form, and when it is still not too hot.  And definitely Traditional Thai massages are the way to go for both of us, because that is where we find relief for our stiff joints.
Food will forever be on the platter, and with further trips to Bangkok (Insha 'Allah), I hope we can explore more.  And knowing that Grab car is so easy to use, moving from one part to another in Bangkok, especially when the journey involves changing of BTS/taxi or Bus/BTS, I am more inclined to use Grab instead.

Till our next trip.  If it materialises.