BKK II Day 1-2: Platinum Mall & Chinatown

DAY 1

As we really enjoyed our time at Bangkok last year, we decided to plan another trip and bring my girl, my mum-in-law and brother-in-law. My girl was so excited that she was already thanking God in her prayers for letting her fly on an airplane!

Family photo at the Departure Gate

We arrived early at the airport and checked in. After crossing immigration, I brought my girl to play at the Family Zone at the transit area.

Family zone at Terminal 2 Transit

Having loads of fun at the slides

There's a huge playground, fully furnished nursing rooms and even a TV room for kids and their parents to hang out. My girl had so much fun at the playground that we became the last to board the plane because we couldn't drag her away from the slides. We were flying with Singapore Airlines this time as there was an amazing promotion online (each ticket only cost S$277!).

Boarding our SQ flight

Everyone is all geared up to go!

My girl also finally had her own seat so that I can relax =)

Freebies & entertainment on board

But even the entertainment system couldn't keep her eyes open for long as she soon fell asleep just 5 minutes into watching Disney Junior. All the excitement and play had finally tired her out! With my girl fast asleep (she's an awesome traveller like that), we had a moment of peace to watch a movie and eat our lunch.

Lunch is served!

And just as I was getting comfortable in my seat, the Captain announced that it was time to land! The total journey was only 2 hours.

We crossed the Thai immigration pretty smoothly and proceeded to get a public cab at the ground floor (2 floors below the arrival hall).

Queuing up for public taxi

We had a lot of luggage so we needed a larger taxi and ended up paying 770 baht for our cab fare (much more than the 320 baht we paid previously). And unlike the previous trip where we stayed at the fancy Novotel Platinum Hotel, we stayed at Grand Diamond Suites Hotel this time due to the availability of family rooms that suited our big family.

At the lobby of Grand Diamond Suites Hotel

Clockwise from left: Master bedroom toilet (with bathtub); Master bedroom with double bed;
Secondary bedroom with twin beds (suitable for older children/ parents)

Clockwise from left: Small kitchen area furnished with adequate amenities;
Large living area with a large balcony and a beautiful view;
The living area connected the 2 bedrooms together such that it's more like an apartment rather than a hotel

There were initially many things that were wrong with our room. First, the main light in the living room was not working so the living room was extremely dark. Second, the faulty electric kettle caused the power to short-curcuit the minute we plugged it in. We had to call housekeeping to bring in an electrician to deal with the problem. It took a while before everything was fixed (thankfully we had no problems after that for the rest of our trip) and we could head out for dinner.

We decided to take a 10 minute walk to Big C, where we had our dinner at Yum Saap.

Yum Saap restaurant

Clockwise from top left: Thai fishcakes; Tom yum seafood soup with glass noodles;
Fried morning glory with chili; Seafood Pad Thai

And then it was off to the Big C hypermart to buy drinks and snacks for the rest of our trip. Big C opens till 12 midnight and it's the only supermarket in the area so if you're staying nearby, this is where you go to get your groceries =)

DAY 2

The next day we woke up late as my girl didn't sleep well and kicked both her daddy and I throughout the night (neither of us were used to co-sharing a bed!). We were famished by the time we headed down to the breakfast buffet provided by our hotel.

Breakfast buffet at the hotel

My family loved the fresh coconut juice straight out of the husk while I liked the crispy croissants (we have very differing tastes).

After breakfast, we did our shopping at Platinum Mall, which was located just next to our hotel.

Shopping at Platinum Mall

I had a great time buying cheap assesories and bags while my girl had fun trying to destroy everything -_-". Luckily I'm well-trained to shop fast! =P

And when baby girl and the guys finally got too cranky with all the walking (we managed to cover a large area record speed!), we had our lunch at the food court at the 6th floor. I have no idea how a little bit of shopping can make the guys hungry so soon after a heavy brunch -_-. After our short recharge, we continued more of our shopping before heading off to Chinatown to introduce my in-laws to the famous birds nest soup at Nam Sing.

Sharks' Fin soup (top right) and Bird's Nest soup (bottom right)

We thought the birds nest soup was delicious but felt that the sharks fin soup that my mum-in-law made during CNY was much better (she was obviously beaming after we said that, which was true! =P). Next, we crossed the road to our usual massage parlor for cheap massages (the cheapest of our trip). Per hour, foot/ shoulder massage is only 150 baht, Thai is 200 baht and Oil is 400 baht!

Massage at Chinatown

Of course since it's cheap, the skill of the masseuse may not be as good (一分钱,一分货). It also depends on your luck because I had a good experience the first time that I patronised but this time, the masseuse massaged so strongly that my inner thighs hurt like crazy after that -_-.

After our massages, we had a sumptuous seafood dinner at our favourite restaurant at Chinatown.

Seafood dinner!

Clockwise from top left: Barbecued cockles; barbecued king prawns;
barbecued squid; barbecued crab fried with glass noodles

With all the eating every 2 hours, I don't think I ever felt hunger pangs since our first meal here in Bangkok! Looking forward to more good food and shopping in the days to come =)


Continue to >> Day 3: Terminal 21 & Siam Paragon

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bangkok, Thailand 
as well as other travel itineraries!

You can also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels! =)

Organising Brushes & Paints

I've stopped painting for a while because I found it hard to access my jumbo size paint set.

My jumbo tubes of acrylic paint

After months of sourcing for a good container to store them, I finally decided the cheaper option would be to customise Diaso containers (you know how I love them). Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Buy suitable containers from Daiso. I chose these because of its colour and the easy to use handles.

Storage rack from Daiso at S$2 each

Step 2: Place the storage racks back to back and then tie them together using wires (you may also use those thin wires that are commonly used to organise cable wires).

Placed back to back

Tied together using craft wires available in most craft stores

Close up shot of the end product

To ensure stability, you should tie 1 wire on both sides of the handle and another below it

Step 3: Make the dividers by recycling the cardboard box that contained the paint (you probably won't need it anymore). If your box is too small, you can also consider using the cardboard at the back of foolscap paper.

Cardboard box that stored my paint set

Measure the storage (add 3-4mm on each side) and cut out the cardboard pieces

Ensure that you cut out 2 cardboard pieces the length of the storage rack and 4 pieces the width of it. You may add more or less depending on the number of compartments you need. As an added touch, I also cut out the ridges (which matched the holes of the storage rack) at the side of the dividers so that they would adhere better and not fall out when you turned the container upside down =)

Then add a slit at the top of the long divider and another at the bottom of the shorter one (do it for both the shorter ones). Ensure that both slits meet in the middle when you join the dividers together. After you have completed one set of dividers (1 long and 2 short), do the same for the other set. Next, assemble the dividers in the containers.

Insert the cardboard dividers into the storage rack

And viola! Your very own rack of paints that cost you less than $5! =)

My tubes of paints, organised neatly by colour *grin*

Neat and handy! =)

Try it yourself! Let me know how it goes =)


*This post is part of my series on The Madeline Standard of Organisation. Read on for more of my practical and sometimes extreme tips for organising your life! =)

The Art of Positive Reinforcement

I have been wanting to create a reward chart for my girl for a long time (since she was 1 years old *gasp*) but didn't manage to do so until my mum-in-law bought a whole set of 500 stickers for her to play with. I thought the stickers would be put to better use for a reward chart so I finally drew up a simple chart after work a few days ago.

Happy with her 1st reward chart

We started off with a few simple tasks (I'll probably make them harder as we go along) that she can do easily such as peeing in the toilet, minding her manners, etc. Every time she does any of the tasks, she gets a sticker as a reward.

Happily sticking on her chosen sticker

Checking that it is in place

After accumulating enough stickers, she gets a simple prize of her choice (knowing her, she will probably choose chocolate ice-cream or something). It's just a simple way to quantify her achievements =)

What about you? How do you reward your kids?

Linking Up With:

It's About Fitness, Not Weight Loss!

That's how I comfort myself that is.

I've been watching my diet and exercising regularly for the last quarter of the year, no thanks to my hyperactive work buddy who doesn't just go horseback riding every morning before work (I know right?), she also does rock climbing, swimming and even jogging with a large backpack of riding equipment home after work! >_<

Yes I know.. she always make me look bad *laughs*

Obviously with a buddy like that, you can't help but be a little motivated to drag your ass to her club's private pool (with hot showers yo!) and swim. I can't even use the "hey, it's too far away!" excuse since it's just across the road from our workplace.

A view of the pool from the office

Another very kind colleague said I look like I've lost weight (look only ah, sad.. *laughs*) but when I step onto the weighing scale, lo and behold, I only lost 1 measly kilogram -_-

That's still far from the goal of 3kg I set last year! *argg*

And to make matters worse, it had been raining the past few weeks and with the wedding preparations and all, I haven't been exercising since the beginning of the year! *gasp*

So anyway, I realized that it would be a downhill spiral for me if I am only focused on the kilograms because before you know it, bam, I will be pregnant again (cross my fingers) and then all the kilos will pile right back on again. I'm trying really hard to climb back on the exercise wagon but in this season of feasting, it's so hard! =(

But as a pastor said once in church one weekend, you're not a failure if you fall. You're only one if you stayed there! And so fight as I might, I will try again! Join me why won't you and let's keep on keeping on together =)

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What's In a Name?

I have always wanted to do a sequel to "Top 10 Horrible Names to Give Your Baby", which has since become one of the most popular posts on my blog, so when MummyMoo suggested a bloghop I thought, "hey why not?"

After all, the whole point isn't just to snigger and joke about it (what? You think this is mean? You haven't met 90% of the kids in their class..), it's to save children from the constant bullying and emotional abuse that they are going to experience for the rest of their lives because of a name! Until they reach the age where they are able to change it legally that is.

If just one parent can be convinced to reconsider a name for their child because of it's implications, we have succeeded in our mission!

To be fair, it really isn't easy to come up with a name for anything, much less a baby. Not only does the name have to sound nice and have a special meaning, it also needs to be unique but yet not sooo unique that it is out of this world.

So for the year 2013, I'm inviting you to blog about anything related to baby names and your thoughts on it. Good or bad, we want to hear from you!

Join me as we embark on our campaign for better baby names.

Here's how to participate:
1) Write a blog post on baby names.

2) Copy the code below and add this button to the bottom of your post.

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3) Add the link of your blog post to the Linky below.

So simple right? I'm looking forward to reading all your thoughts so link away! =)

Celebrating the New Year of the Snake

Following the tradition of our family, we had steamboat for our reunion dinner this year as we had last year and the year before.

Look at the awesome spread of food!

Our family photo before we started the meal

The only difference was that this year, we had Hokkaido hairy crab, Hokkaido giant scallops, Wagyu beef and Japanese soup base (all bought at discounted prices from Kuriya Fresh Fish Market, Cold Storage and Mediya) as the stars of our meal! Yes.. we really miss Hokkaido!

The hairy crab together with the Japanese soup base brought extra flavour to our food while the beef was super soft and tender! I ate so much my stomach felt like it was about to burst!

Later that evening, I did a pedicure for my girl as promised and she was uber excited! She got to choose a colour and all that, it was really fun.

She played with a toy while waiting for her nails to dry

"Sparrow Me the Drama" by O.P.I

At around 11pm, we took a slow stroll to Chinatown to join in the festivities and see the firecrackers and fireworks.

One of the main roads at Chinatown was closed as usual

We stood at the back of the stage where there were significantly less people. The trade-off is that you can't really see the fireworks from here. Nevertheless, baby girl got a chance to experience the loud firecrackers and the smoke that it produced!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. 新年快乐!!

The next morning, we woke up at 10am to get ready for our day of visiting.

"大吉大利, 恭喜发财!"

Presenting the most senior in the family with 2 oranges and receiving a red packet in return

In our traditional Chinese cheong sum

This year we got traditional Chinese dresses for my girl and myself so that the both of us can wear matchy-matchy clothes this year =)

Then it was off to visit my mum and my maternal grandmother.

All decked out in red this year!

CNY is a time of catching up with relatives, eating loads and loads of high-calorie goodies (of which I'm proud to say I ate only a little bit of) and taking lots of photos! =)

Spot the Difference!

Girl was so exhausted, she got really cranky after her cousins left our house and went to dreamland the minute her head hit the pillow.