Bangkok Thailand - 15 to 17 May 2016 | The Residence on Thonglor

First time going on a trip with fellow foodies. Not too many, just the cosy four as the rest could not make it due to differing schedules.

First challenge, was to find a suitable accommodation that fits our purpose. Budget of below SGD150 per night. Best if nearby has good food. Keke. Areas to consider was Pratunam, Pathum Wan and Thonglor. Spent some days scouring the hotel booking sites for a list of hotels that fits the criteria. Next, pored through the reviews and finally, made my recommendation. The Residence on Thonglor. Looks like good value for money with two-nights below SGD150 (without breakfast) and room size of 40 sq.m for a Studio Junior Suite. Nearby food options checked and aplenty. Downside? Distance from nearest BTS is about 1.9km.

Reached hotel about 1pm, an hour earlier than the 2pm check-in time. The hotel lobby is at Level 2, and was attended to by Apple. There will be a deposit of ฿1000 required upon check-in. Waited for about 15 to 20 minutes and was able to get the room at Level 5, slightly earlier. Wifi password is provided as well. The signal was quite good throughout the two-days stay.

しつれいします!

First impression upon entering the room was like, "Wah... so spacious!" Can't be helped as am accustomed to the size of hotel rooms in Japan. Went exploring the space and was basically, a happy kid! Though I've booked a Junior Studio Suite, I think I got upgraded to the 1-bedroom Suite instead. WoohOOo!

personal living room in a hotel

view from the window

bedroom

bathtub

yes, with toothbrush kit provided

lemongrass shampoo and bodywash

There is a full sized fridge in the room, but it was empty except for two bottles of drinking water.

time to stock up!

Discovered that the bottles were rather dirty so gave it a good wash. The empty fridge looked quite forlorn, so decided to stock up with some stuffs later on that night. The nearby Family Mart is about 6 minutes walk away, while a bigger supermarket called "Villamarket" is located at J's Avenue, about 15 minutes walk away.

all clean again

The hotel has an on-site deli/restaurant called Kuppadeli. The menu can be found in the room and guests can call for room-service, though I have no idea which number to call. Apple did mention, but I couldn't catch nor remember what it was. Perhaps, to dial #5?

Kuppadeli menu

That night, we did go out to J's Avenue, and I came back with some drinks and instant noodles as the next day we will have an early start to go to the floating market, located about 2 hours drive away from our area.

hotel sign from afar, at night

back to the hotel

The room has a washing machine cum dryer, but remember to bring your own washing liquid/powder as that is not provided. Tried the machine and had some trouble getting it to wash. It was throwing out an error. Finally, figured it out that the error meant that the door was detected as not closed. So, just needed to open and close it again. It took about an hour to wash the smallest load and another two hours to dry. Hangers are provided in the bedroom closet.

There are two TVs; one in the living room and another in the bedroom. Airconditioning as well. Hence, need to remember to switch off these two different locations before going out.

enjoying a snack while watching TV

If you need the newspaper, there are only shared copies in the Lobby.

shared newspaper in the lobby

Head right up to Level 9, to access the Gym, Infinity Pool and mini-golf course.

Level 9 rooftop

relax and enjoy the view

gym

mini golf course

infinity pool

panoramic view of Level 9

For breakfast, I fixed some instant noodles and enjoyed a packet of orange juice. For coffee, there's nescafe sachet in the room. It wasn't replenished the next day though.

tea and nescafe

breakfast DIY

If you need to get to Thonglor BTS, just let the hotel staff know and they will get the driver of the complimentary shuttle to take you there. If the shuttle is out, just need to wait for about 10 to 15 minutes as the journey to the destination is about 5 to 6 minutes, if the traffic is good. The complimentary shuttle service is actually the hotel tuk-tuk which is a cleaner and spacious version of tuk-tuks.

enjoying the shuttle ride

Had enjoyed the stay at The Residence on Thonglor and will be back again.

Bangkok Thailand - 15 to 17 May 2016 | Taking a Cab from DMK Airport

Took the AirAsia flight from Terminal 1 Changi Airport to Don Muaeng International Airport. The thing about AirAsia being self-service was that the printed boarding pass that I had, was in a wrong format and the bar code can't be scanned. -_-'

So ended up, having to reprint at the airport. The AirAsia mobile app was even worse. It didn't capture the flight booking nor details, much less have a barcode after web check-in. -_-''

The flight was delayed for about 15 minutes or so, as it was late to open its gate for boarding. Once onboard, had time to check-out the in-flight menu and was quite intrigued to find water drop cake (yamanashi mochi) in it. Flight was pretty packed and seemed like many were travelling to Bangkok on a Sunday.

Yamanashi Mochi via selected AirAsia flight

First time arriving at DMK. After getting off the plane, followed the crowd and boarded the shuttle bus for a short ride back to the airport arrival area.

After immigration, headed towards Gate 8 to find a cab to the hotel. Lots of cab waiting.

towards Gate 8

Show the address to the person at the counter and she will pass you a slip of paper and one will follow the cab driver to his vehicle. Keep this slip of paper as it contained the cab details and it contains telephone number for you to make an official complaint, if ever required.

taxi slip

The cab driver will ask if you prefer to use the highway. If yes, do prepare the small notes as the toll fees are payable directly by the passenger. Also, if there are 3 different tolls that you'll be passing, the driver will get the toll fees from you each time and return you the change (if any). He will not keep your notes for the next toll. The total toll fees that we passed to get to Thonglor area was about ฿145.

passing by a highway toll

The ride was smooth and pleasant as it was a weekend. The only English that the driver had spoken thus far was, "Highway?"

When he looked abit lost, I asked if he'd like to call the hotel. He nodded his head, and I passed him my phone after pressing on the 'call' button. Agoda app has the 'taxi helper' function, which displayed the address in local language and a button to contact the hotel. So useful!

Agoda app - taxi helper feature

The 4G AIS traveller's simcard has free talk time so, it was all good. Located the hotel soon after and the total taxi fare was ฿395 (฿145 highway fees + ฿200 + ฿50 surcharge).

To the Land of a Thousand Smiles - 15 to 17 May 2016 | Bangkok Thailand

It all started when Hence (from www.chubbybotakkoala.com) asked if any of us would like to join him on his next trip to Bangkok. Ivan (from ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.sg) says he is available during those dates and so was I. All of us flew on different dates so basically, I'd be travelling solo to and from Thailand.

First visit to Bangkok was way back in 2010 where we (a group of 5 girls) went to Bangkok to shop. We stayed at Amari Watergate Pratunam area, so we did all the Platinum Mall, Chatuchak, Aw Tor Kor and Chinatown then.

This time round, I did some research and suggested Thonglor, and for accommodation, suggested "The Residence on Thonglor". Things that were taken into account for accommodation was price range that must be less than SGD100 per night, must have recent good reviews and location where it must be near foods. Thonglor is actually dotted with cafes, pubs, Thai food, Japanese and even Korean foods. Thanks to Google Map and Agoda for making things so readily searchable.

With that settled, the cheapest flight with the timing that I wanted (morning flight since am travelling alone) was with Airasia. For departure, opted for no check-in baggage and on return, added check-in baggage. But why is it that Airasia only has 24kg and nothing lesser than that option? I'd be keen to just take 10kg check-in. Oh, and Airasia flies to Don Muaeng while the rest of them were flying via Suvarnabhumi.

Next up, wifi. In Japan, I'd taken a wifi router with me but that'd cost $12 per day. Is it any cheaper for Thailand wifi router? Nope. So, an overseas pre-paid SIM card made more sense in this case. It is definitely much cheaper if you get in on-board Airasia for just ฿299 and similar price in Thailand.

However, I got my 4G AIS sim card (high speed for 7 days unlimited) from Changi Recommends for $13 (~฿331) by booking it online and collecting it on departure date. Pretty simple and hassle free. A small instruction leaflet will be given on how to activate it. Also quite simple by calling *120 once you have landed in Thailand. As this post was written after the trip, the experience with AIS simcard was rather good. Reliable and good speed. Here's a link to it: https://www.changirecommends.com/deal.aspx?id=965

to get connected

beautiful day to fly