Travel: Bangkok Thailand – Day 3: Central World, MK Restaurant, Terminal 21, Yaowarat (Chinatown), T&K Seafood Restaurant

Another fresh new day in Bangkok and another photo-intensive post ahead! You’ve been “warned”!

We are back at Big C Rajdamri today – and like I mentioned previously, it’s opposite Central World, an upmarket shopping centre.

As usual, there are many street food sellers hawking their fare – from clothes to fruits!

Thai strawberries on sale!

We bought 2 freshly-cut guavas from this lady. I love the guavas! They were so fresh and sweet, unlike anything we have here that we import from elsewhere.

Mum went to the departmental store area of Big C to look for clothes, while I made a detour to the food section.

I forgot about their variety of Pocky & Pretz flavours until sis pointed it our last night.

Pocky is more towards the sweet flavours like Strawberry, Chocolate, Banana and Milk.

Pretz is more savoury – they have Toasted Bread (!), Thai (something), Pizza, Cheese, Salt, Tom Yum and Sour Cream.

The Pocky and Pretz sticks are also available in boxes of 10!

I’m here for Boots Pharmacy!

I’ve. been. wanting. to. visit. Boots. for. forever.

SO HAPPY!

You can’t take away the adrenaline of seeing a new brand from a toiletries store junkie 😀

And guess what! Soap and Glory (a UK brand like Boots) was on offer!

My favourite Soap & Glory Pulp Friction Body Scrub was only 255 baht! A fraction of what I pay at Sephora Singapore!!

We crossed to the other side and went to Central World. First stop is Naraya, where mum and I got some pouches for ourselves and as souvenirs. It was so crowded and it seems like a pilgrimage stop for every tourist to Bangkok. -_-

Spotted the famous “After You” dessert cafe at Central World.

We decided to have steamboat for lunch at MK Restaurant. It’s my colleague’s favourite and he highly recommended it!

The roasted duck is a must-order, and I know why!

The menu has a 3D effect. LOL!

This is the roasted duck dish! I have no idea why, but it’s so tender and well cooked! I love the slightly sweet gravy too!

170 baht.

We ordered spinach, a veggie platter, sliced fish, dumplings, sliced beef, pork balls and tofu.

Seems little eh? We are so full after the meal!

They have my favourite dim sum item there – yam pastry with pork filling! 芋角！

Ah!!! It’s freshly fried, the yam was really yam (if you get what I mean – i.e. without fillers) and the filling was good!

One of the best 芋角 I’ve ever had!

After our fulfilling lunch, we decided to go Terminal 21, a shopping centre with different country theme decor on each level!

We took the BTS from Chit Lom and arrived at Asok (Asoke) BTS station.

Paris theme.

Japan theme.

Istanbul theme.

Rome theme.

San Francisco theme.

Here, a Singaporean/Malaysian group of young tourists asked my mum where she got her Naraya products, cos mum was holding onto the plastic bag. Haha!

We took a seat at the food court and we had the durian sticky rice (mum commented it’s more ‘sticky’ here!).

I also bought a cup of Thai Ice Tea ice cream! 28 baht.

There’s a Taokaenoi vending machine at the cinema level!

Hollywood theme.

San Francisco theme.

Sis! See this! The way to the toilet is decorated like a bakery! Haha!

View from the toilet!

Lots of cute bears.

Caribbean theme

After Terminal 21, mum wanted to go Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown area.

We wanted to wait for a taxi at Terminal 21’s designated taxi stand, but no taxi was entering, so we decided to go outside to wait. But every taxi driver over-quoted us, and I was fed up with it, so we tried to find the Sukhumvit MRT station to take to Hua Lamphong MRT (the nearest station to Yaowarat, but still a 1km walk away).

Everyone led us in the wrong direction. And I was especially upset because the pomegranate juice seller (whom we bought a bottle from) directed us in the wrong direction!

After some kind souls directed us back (it’s just outside the Asok BTS exit!), we decided to wait for a taxi at the Terminal 21 taxi stop, since there was no queue anymore!

And a kind driver agreed to take us there, on meter!

The fare came up to 97 baht, but I paid him 120 baht, because I was so relieved after the ordeal was over and for a kind taxi driver to bring us there.

We were there at about 5pm, which is considered early, as many blogs tell you to go there after 6pm.

Mum preferred to go early though, to escape from the crowd and to be able to see the streets better.

There are many Lim Jing Hieng (Lin Zhen Xiang) 林真香 pork floss stores around, so don’t be too anxious about getting your pork floss products.

Eventually we ended up in one of the many pork floss stores and got our products here.

They have a nice dog, but unfortunately the staff was so cold and unfriendly.

There was this lady who took more interest in re-arranging the products after we took them up to see, rather than trying to engage us.

I hated the whole shopping experience. I’ll not come back again.

We spent 1117 baht here, which is about S$44.

We crossed the road and I wanted to find a massage place for my aching back.

We walked up and down the street, and ended up in this massage place with staff in pink shirts.

Rates were going at 150 baht for 45 mins, but they offered 180 baht for 60 mins with a head and back massage.

Mum was served by a nice lady, but then she went upstairs to serve another male customer when he arrived. 😦

But anyway, both of us had male therapists for our foot massages and their skills were really good!

We had our knots sorted out and it was a very good experience.

We gave them 60 baht tips each.

I’ll go back!

Mum asked the lady therapist earlier on which restaurant to go to, and she said we could try out either the stalls with either red or green shirts.

Since we saw T&K seafood and they had air-conditioned seats, we decided to go for a try.

We were directed upstairs where they are a couple of seats. Our meal was initially peaceful. There were only us, a young and non-intrusive couple speaking Cantonese, and a group of Singaporean/Malaysian men speaking English.

All was fine.

And then came one group of 7 young Chinese tourists.

The first thing they did after they came in was to shout for someone who could speak in Mandarin. And when the boss/manager arrived, they were half-hearted in making orders, and instead chose to indulge in photo-taking, etc. During the course of their meal, they were so noisy and boorish that I was both amused and annoyed.

Thankfully they aren’t many of such species among the Chinese in Singapore!

Birds nest~ 100 baht or 200 baht.

We had 2 bowls of the 100 baht birds nest. Mum found them a tad too sweet, but I thought they were quite ok.

We ordered fried rice with prawns.

Omelette with crab meat.

Stir friend snow pea shoots 豆苗.

We spent 480 baht for the meal.

They served our dishes in lightning speed! Mum was commenting that they would take at least 30 mins due to the crowd, but no! It was served very quickly after we placed our orders!