Bangkok Day 1 & 2 // After You x Central World x Chatuchak x Rooftop Bar

School is starting tomorrow and before I get really busy with it, I have decided to put up a post about my Bangkok trip! J I should draft it now before I start to lose part of the memory.

It had been a good 4 years since I last visited Bangkok and I have always wanted to go again but was unable to find people to go with. Boyfriend and I decided to head over for a holiday before he starts his work, and for me before I start school. It was a last minute decision and it took us 2 hours to decide on which airline to take. Finally got our flight booked with Jetstar Asia at a total cost of about $440 for two! The flight could have been cheaper if not for us flying off in National Day. So after booking the flight, what comes next would be the hotel. It took us quite awhile to decide where to stay.

We got our hotel booked through Agoda. We stayed in this 5 star hotel named The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam, which caught our attention because it was only $80+ inclusive of breakfast! There were also other hotels that we came across, but in the end we chose Berkeley because it is a 5 star hotel and the price is so cheap! But we actually kind of regretted after checking into the hotel on the first night. Though it is a 5 star hotel, but the service that they provide wasn’t up to standard. As we landed quite late, so we only managed to check-in to the hotel at around 8pm. By then, there was already no more King-sized bedroom left. We requested for a change when there are available rooms but in the end we didn’t manage to change for our stay there.

On the same night, we requested for an adaptor and it took them 2-3 hours to get it sent to our room. And that was only after we have made several calls to the receptionist. The wait has actually wasted our night there. By the time, we received the adaptor it was already 1230am. And it was already time for bed. There was also some bad experience encountered during our stay. The shower head in the bathroom leaks in the middle of the night, and it was not just for a night but also for a few nights. The rest I shall not further elaborate it. The overall experience was Berkeley wasn’t as pleasant as what I expected it to be.

Back to the trip! We managed to touch down Bangkok at around 630pm and headed to the hotel via the Airport rail link. It is very convenient to just take the train all the way from the airport to Ratchaprarop Station and it only costs 40baht each! Not too sure how much it would cost if one were to cab down. It took us only 40 minutes to arrive at Pratunam area. And I guess it would definitely better to take the rail link since it was peak hour and there might be traffic jams everywhere! Lucky for us, our hotel wasn’t too far from the station and it was only a 5 minutes walk from the station to the hotel. Ohh yes forgot to mention about the hotel having main tower and the north tower! So if you stay in the north towel you will have to transit from the level 11 to the north tower. It isn’t as what many from what many people had mentioned. So after leaving our luggage in the hotel, we headed out to Siam area to have our dinner!

Since we are in Bangkok, Mookata is a must have! It’s actually our first time trying it out. We saw it from a lot of posts on the Internet that Bar-B Q is a must try, and so we headed over there to get our first dinner fixed! Since it was our first day there, we don’t really know what is the exact fare of cabbing from one area to another and because we were really hungry. We ended up hopping onto a Tuk-Tuk that charges us a 100 baht to get to Siam. For references, it only cost about 40-50baht to get to Siam from Pratunam if you were to go by meter. It would definitely be better to hop on a cab which charges by meter.

First stop, Bar BQ Plaza in Siam Centre located at level 4. When we arrived, it was already near closing and because it was our first time, we didn’t really know how to go about ordering things from the menu. The food item finally arrived, and we were supposed to cook it like the normal Korean BBQ. But half the time I was actually looking around at other table to see how they do it. In the end, we just do it our own way. I assume we were right? Haha. There’s always a first time so I guess it wasn’t that bad. We didn’t really order a lot, and the total bill amounts to about $20, which we thought is considerably reasonable.

After dinner, we headed over to Siam Night Market. I was recommended by my sis to go over there to shop, as the stuffs there are quite cheap as compared to Platinum. But then again, because it was our first night, we don’t really know how much does things usually cost, so in the end I was just checking out prices and taking a look at what’s available for sale. In the end, my loot of the night was a necklace that costs me 180 baht. And that’s how we ended our first night there.

Day 2

On the second day, we managed to squeeze so many activities into it and fully utilizing the time we had! Woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel before heading out to Chatuchak Weekend Market! Took a cab down which costs us less than a 100 baht and that’s when we know that we were being cheated the previous night. The impression of Chatuchak didn’t change much. It’s still that big and messy as before. Walked for 2 hours and gave up! It was exactly the same feeling as the last time round when I went. Totally have no motivation to shop under the hot sun, and with so many different things around. But at least I did not return with anything empty! Got my stomached filled with the famous Coconut Ice-cream and Pork Bun!

Headed over to Central World after having our stomach filled! Checked out a few stores and got my first purchase done at Stradivarius. It’s quite funny that I went to Bangkok to shop for items that I can find in Singapore. But that’s because it was on sales and the things really caught my eyes! Shopped, tried and finally time for another round of food! YES! Finally get to try After You Dessert Café! Seem so much on Instagram and have always wanted to try it! And it was indeed fantastic! So addictive! Wanted to try so many things but my stomach was unable to hold so much food. We had the Shibuya Honey Toast and Chocolate Lava Cake! Both of them were so good!! Not exaggerating that I even wanted to have it once more before leaving. Central World is only about 5-10 minutes walk away from our hotel. Thankfully, we did not have to take a cab back to the hotel.

Back to hotel to wash up before we head out again to Platinum mall! Platinum mall is 1-3 minutes walk from our hotel. After walking so much, our legs were already breaking by then. Platinum closes at 7pm and so we headed off for dinner instead. Wanted to try the famous Wanton Mee but who knows, it closes at 5plus. In the end, we had Hong Ji Seafood for dinner! After much hesitant, we had settled down for dinner there and glad that we had made the right choice. Food there was reasonable and tasty!

We headed back to the hotel again, before making our way out to the rooftop bar. Anyway, one thing good about our hotel is there is actually a mini night market along the street right outside of our hotel! There are also some customize shop that helps people to do customization of key chains, pouch and what not. It’s definitely a great idea for gift. Washed up, rest, change out and headed out to Central World again for the rooftop bar at Zen World. Another great decision made! Get to enjoy the beautiful skyline of Bangkok and took some nice photos. Thanks to the dearest boyfriend who is always so good at capturing every moment. Sipping our white wine and enjoying every moment we had at the rooftop bar. Great night with great company!