10th Cycle - Day 2

The long weekend has come and gone and today is my 2nd day back for my reservist. 

Everything went by really quickly today, weapons training was done within an hour, after which we were given a 15 minutes break that ended up lasting for 2 hours, during which time we also had our lunch and froze our ass off in the training room because there was air-conditioning with the ceiling fan and wall fan all turned on at the same time.

Right after that excessive break, another training spec came in to run a few more slides with us and it was great, he jokingly asked us what time we wanted him to end and someone said 1.30pm,  it was about 1.15pm when he started, so he opened the slide and started reading what was on the slide word for word, but when he moved on to the next slide, he looked at it for a bit and went...

"Okay, not important, next."

....and then for the next few slides after, it was all mainly just....

"Doesn't concern you guys, next."

"Not important, next"

... and we ended up skipping like 80% of the slides, which allowed him to end the training at 1.27pm.

I really like his style. 

He doesn't waste our time going through all the unnecessary fluff that had been prepared solely to hold us in camp, he only went through what was relevant to us and that was it. Sweet and simple.

After that, we were released and our training for this cycle is officially over, so that's day 2 for me.

The next time I report to camp, it will be to properly starting doing our Guard Duties. 

Our Guard Duty schedule also came out and I will be doing as much hours as I did for the last cycle.

The last cycle, I did a total of 60 hours worth of Guard Duty over a 2 weeks period, that was the maximum hours that could be imposed on us and the Active Commanders took full advantage of that. The ICT commanders for the last Reservist Cycle was just really shit at negotiating a better arrangement for us, so all the ICT personnel's had no choice and ended up suffering because of it. 

The ICTs were doing more Guard Duties hours than the active personnel's, some active soldiers were even doing less than half the hours we were doing. Looking back, I really should have just written in to MINDEF to complaint, but alas, that was back in February, so it's probably too late to do that now.

Thankfully, the ICT Commander for this cycle seems to be better at negotiating, so he also got everyone 60 hours worth of Guard Duty individually max, (I might only be doing 54 hours and my friend will probably only be doing 48 hours worth) but that is 60 hours spread over a course of 3 weeks, which is a significantly better deal because that means I don't have to report to camp everyday. 

The Specs have already planned out our duties earlier this afternoon, and my emplacements are actually not bad, a lot of morning and some afternoon duties but also a lot are in air-conditioned areas, compared to my last cycle, this is considered amazing, it's not the best, but it's definitely not the worst, as long as no one goes get an MC and fucks everyone else's schedule like that celebrity bugger during my last cycle, I will say I am generally quite satisfied with the arrangement.

10th Cycle - Day 1 and Meet Up.

Today is the first day of my "final" reservist cycle and the reason why "final" is in quotes is because I recently learned from my friend that another mutual friend of ours who is currently doing this "final" cycle was told by the Commanding Officer that he (CO) cannot answer as to whether or not the 10th cycle will really be the last cycle before the mutual friend officially MR because the airbase has limited manpower and will need all the manpower they can get.

In order to MR, we have complete 10 Cycles of Reservist, out of this 10 cycles, we will need to have at least completed 7 High Keys and the other 3 can either be High Keys or low keys. 

The situation that I am in right now is I have completed 7 High Keys and 3 Low Keys, this is the same with my friend and our mutual friend, we have completed the minimum requirement to officially MR, BUT because that is just the minimum requirement, we can still be expected to called back for 3 more High Keys because the maximum requirement to MR is to complete 10 High Keys, this means you could potentially be called back for 7000 Low Keys, but as long as you did not complete 10 High Keys, your CO or whoever is in charge can choose not to let you MR.

First they increase our Reservist from 2 weeks to 3 weeks, and now they are pulling this shit on us. I really hope they don't end up calling me back again after this cycle. Please just let the ones who have already endured through 10 cycles be over and done with our NS Commitments and not fucking call us up again unless it's to attend our MR Ceremony.

Our Guard Duty schedule has been getting bad to worse, now the active soldiers are doing lesser hours than us...

.. I had wanted to write in to MINDEF during my last cycle because of how bad it was, but decided not to because I thought things would improve after so many of us brought our complaints up to the Encik, I also left comments on the Out-Pro survey form about the whole situation, but they were clearly not taken seriously because nothing has changed. It's still the same shit according to our mutual friend.

Anyways, "final" cycle started today and I got to drove the Mazda 2 into base, the ride was smooth, and this time, I was actually like 5 minutes late, in the past I would always be 15 minutes early, but once you have gone through that many cycles, you eventually learn to accept the fact that being early means fuck all if we are always only going to be starting only 90 minutes after the reporting time, which is actually fine with me really because that means I will never actually ever be late.

As per usual, today is all about watching a bunch of training videos that I have already watched multiple times, I don't think there was anything planned for today aside from the videos, so after 2 to 3 videos, we had lunch, followed by another 2 to 3 videos and then we got released. It was a pretty early release but I am not complaining, and since tomorrow is the Presidential Election, that means I don't have to go back to camp and will also be able to enjoy the long weekend like everyone else, it's pretty awesome.

After that, I met up with some of my ex-colleague from my previous job for my ex-Manager's farewell get together in Chinatown. I was seriously contemplating whether to drive there or not because the traffic there is usually quite bad, plus with the long weekend happening, I was sure the area will be packed. But after thinking for a while, I decided to just go for it and just brave whatever traffic comes my way, it would be nice to actually be able to drive back then have to take the train home, I could also take it as my way of acclimatizing to the road again.

But during my drive there....

I. Missed. So. Many. Fucking. Turns

It was ridiculous. What was suppose to be a 30minutes drive ended up taking almost an hour because of how many turns I missed,

The driving app was giving me directions like...

"Keep right, make a right turn, now turn left."

... like I will make a right turn and be in the extreme right lane, but then be expected to switch to the extreme left lane to make a left turn immediately after. If the app had told me to stick to the outer right lane before I actually make a turn, I would still have a chance to make that immediate left turn, but it didn't, and the map was also zoomed in so I couldn't properly plan the drive until it was too late.

I was also blocked by a few large vehicles multiple times, couldn't switch lanes because they were literally matching my speed for some fucking reason, and ended up missing more turns completely.

The drive was so infuriating I was honestly contemplating on just giving up and going home at one point, but I did eventually reach Chinatown, found a parking lot at the public carpark in Hong Lim Complex because it had "200 LOTS" available, so parking was actually a breeze,

I did get a bit lost trying to navigate the carpark and ended up taking a very long way to reach the bar, which would have been literally just right across the street, but I walked the opposite direction to try and get to Chinatown Point first to properly orientate myself, so that was like 5 minutes of extra walking that I did. 

For some reason, I kept expecting the bar that my ex-Manager found was going to be one of the quiet ones that plays jazz music while the patrons are sipping on Whiskey and talking really quietly amongst themselves, but it wasn't. It was a bar with a live band that was singing covers of pop music and it was so fucking loud.

One thing about me is I hate crowds and I hate loud music, that bar had both, especially the loud music part. I was very happy to be able to see all my ex-colleagues again, but the atmosphere was just such a buzzkill for me. I could barely hold a conversations with anyone because I couldn't hear myself speak, I also didn't drink since I was driving, so whilst everyone was busy cheers-ing away with beer and shots in their hands, all I had was a mocktail that I finished within 20 minutes, so all the cheers that I joined in after was with a bottle of water, and by the the 4th or 5th cheers, I just started to zone out.

My Apple Watch was also sending me warnings during my time in the bar and informing me that the current volume I was experiencing was very unhealthy. I was actually looking around to see which table was the loudest and I realized it was ours, almost everyone was screaming and singing along to the live band and just really enjoying themselves.

My ex-Manager was actually planning to stay till 3am, and I thought I could maybe stay till 1am and just catch up, but I was naïve in thinking that the bar will actually quiet down the later we stayed because it's a bar, it's only gets louder and more crowded the later it gets.

By 10.30pm, I was already feeling mentally drained from being in that environment and just wanted to leave asap, almost everyone was buzzed except me, some were half drunk and being really really loud. I told my ex-colleague whom I was going to give a ride that I wanted to step out for a while to take a breather, so I grabbed my stuff and tried to head over to the entrance that I had came in from, but for some reason, the club locked it, and I was just standing there, desperately trying to unlock and unlatch whatever I could find to get it opened.

Luckily one of the staff was nearby so I told him how to get out and he directed me to the main entrance at the other side of the bar, I walked pass the table where all of us were, told my ex-Manager I was going to step out for a while, and honestly, I had no plans to get back in anymore after that.

I then texted my ex-colleague whom I was offering a ride home to that I am not planning to go back in anymore, so she also excused herself and came out in like 10 minutes, her fiancé was also around the area so I ended up driving them home together. The drive home was also riddled with a lot of miss turns as well, so it was maybe 15 minutes longer than it should have been.

So that's how the day ended for me, rather abruptly with no proper goodbyes to anyone, I also didn't want to say my goodbyes to them because everyone was buzzed. I did drop a text to my ex-Manager and told her we should meet up again for a proper meal and do a proper catching up, so hopefully we do because I barely had time to actually chit-chat with her in the bar, and my voice was sore even though I didn't talk a lot.

Overall, didn't have a good time in the bar, absolutely hated the setting, but I am very happy to have at least been able to see all my ex-colleagues again one more time, would have been a 10/10 if it wasn't in the bar, but because it was, I will rate this experience a 5/10, full points for the company, zero points for the location.

AG Fragrances and Car Rental Stuff

I have started getting into perfumes recently and my current obsession right now is the Ariana Grande line of fragrances, it's really random but I just suddenly got attracted to sweeter smelling scents lately. I kept getting decants to try out because the full sizes are quite expensive, that being said, the fragrances are actually quite nice, some are definitely extremely feminine, but there are a few that I think I can wear without it being weird on a guy.

The way female fragrances will change the longer you wear it makes them a lot more fascinating to me than the male fragrances, male fragrances also do as well, but the scent notes are all generally quite similar, so the evolution of the scent isn't as interesting.

So far, I have spend about $100 on the decants and have just forked out another $120 to get 2 full size bottled ones from Shopee, which is R.E.M and God Is A Woman, the first is a Lavender scent, the second is a Pear scent. They are not super feminine smelling, so I think I can still pull it off and people will just assume I smell "laundry detergent" fresh. 

The one I really want to get in a full size though is Mod Vanilla, that is the one with the kind of sweet scent I was looking for, which is a very warm vanilla smell, almost like stepping into a pastry kitchen smell, but at $99 for a 30ml bottle, it's really quite insane. They do come in 100ml versions as well, which I would assume will only be maybe $40 more, but the only Shopee store that sells it doesn't have any 100ml ones available, so I don't think I will get it yet and maybe just stick to the decants because 3 x 10ml decant is around $78, it's like $21 cheaper, which means the original packaging will cost me $21.

Mod Vanilla (White) is superior to Mod Blush (Pink), I am very tempted because I actually really like the bottle it comes in, even though a lot of people are saying it looks weird.

Speaking of spending money, I have also forked out $1,700 for a car for my Reservist that will start tomorrow and last for 3 weeks. 

I had initially planned to get as Honda Fit instead of the Picanto that I usually get because I figured since it's my last cycle, why not just splurge a little and get the better car. (The last time I decided to splurge on the car, I ended up getting Covid, so thankfully I am completely fine this time around). I texted the car workshop but unfortunately, they didn't have any Honda Fit available, so the boss recommended me either the Suzuki Swift or a Mazda 2.

I have been on the car rental website multiple times to look at the different cars they have, and I will always stick within a specific price range, I have seen the Suzuki Swift, which has the same rental fee as the Honda Fit, but I have never seen a Mazda 2 as an option, so I thought the Mazda 2 was one of the more expensive models and the boss was offering it to me as an alternative because the one I wanted wasn't available, so I told him I will take the Mazda 2. I made the booking about a week in advance.

On the day I was set to collect the car, which was 3 days ago, I actually went over to the workshop during my lunch time to collect it, unfortunately for me, the previous person who rented the car hadn't returned it yet, so the workshop decided to let me use another Mazda 2 that they have temporarily first until the Mazda 2 I rented was returned.

The Mazda 2 that they loaned me was a newer model, so it was actually a bit more expensive to rent, I was given the option to top up and upgrade to the newer model, but decided not to because I had already applied for a Temporary Parking Pass at my Condo under the car plate number of the car that I had rented, and I just didn't really see the point in upgrading to a newer model if my whole goal of renting the car was just to get me from Point A to Point B.

My benchmark was the Picanto that I had rented twice previously, if I can go through 2 reservist cycle with the Picanto, which happens to also be the cheapest car they had available, then the Mazda 2 that I had rented, which is slightly more expensive, should be a better drive.

So I took on the workshop's offer, drove the newer Mazda 2 back to my workplace first because I had already exceeded my lunch time, and the workshops' boss will drive the Mazda 2 that I rented over to my office to do the swap once it has been returned. 

I didn't really pay too much attention to the driving quality of the newer Mazda 2, my main goal during the drive back to the office was just to make sure that I don't get into any accidents because it has been 6 months since I last drove. I almost did.

Once I got back to the office, I went to taobao lunch and then went to the office to work and eat at the same time, it helps that my boss is very chill so everything worked out great for me. About 2 hours later, the workshop boss drives over to my office to do the swap, he had actually called me when I was on the Expressway to ask me if I could make a U-Turn because the older Mazda 2 had already been returned, but it was really difficult because I am already on the Expressway, I really didn't want to have to do that, so that's how he ended up having to drive over.

When I went to the carpark, I was actually horrified at how fucking ugly the older Mazda 2 model was, it was also in pretty bad shape, there were a lot of chips everywhere and it just looked like a fucking mess, plus it also came in this really ugly light blue colour that just screamed "dated", I was actually embarrassed, even the Picanto looked better than the Mazda 2.

But I didn't say too much and did a swap, signed the paperworks and within 5 minutes, the newer Mazda 2 was driven back to the workshop and I was left with the ugly blue car. I didn't test drive it because I had to go back to the office, so once I inserted the Cash Card into the UI and mounted my Handphone Holder, I went back to the office with the new car key, which was anything but new, it was in a really bad condition as well.

Work work work until about 7pm and drove the Mazda 2 home.

The controls to adjust the side mirrors were spoilt, so I had to manually push them, which made a lot of cracking noise and was extremely worrying,  the driving quality was about the same as the Picanto, the main difference is that I had to pay more for it and it was also fugly as shit. The Honda Fit that I rented when I had Covid did not drive as badly as the Mazda 2, like it was really really bad.

By the time I reached home, the sky had already gotten dark, that was when I realized that the interior lights were not working, and it just made the car feel even sadder, I mean the Picanto's interior light didn't work when I rented it the first time, but at least the workshop did make an effort to repair it before I rented it for the 2nd time, this Mazda 2 on the other hand is just garbage.

When I was in my room after I got home, I kept thinking about the newer Mazda 2 that they had loaned me earlier that day, and the more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't accept the Mazda 2 that I got, so I messaged the workshop boss and asked him if the newer Mazda 2 was available for my entire rental duration, he said it was, so I actually went down to the workshop the next day right when they opened, returned the junk Mazda 2, topped up about $230 and got my hands on the better Mazda 2.

No regrets.

 The drive is so much better, the only complaint I have about the newer Mazda 2 is that the rear window heating element isn't working, so it can be a bit dangerous if the car fogs up, which means I can't turn my aircon on too strong at night otherwise I will get blinded by the condensation on the window, but aside from that, everything is great. 

It brings me joy to know that I am driving that Mazda 2 into camp and not the other junk.

Bangkok Trip

Just returned from my short Bangkok trip yesterday night and I will say it was as successful as my Taiwan trip. I guess going for these solo trips forces me to create an itinerary in order to fully maximize my time there. 

For this trip, I took Scootplus and unfortunately I was not able to have 2 seats to myself like on EVA Air because this is ultimately still a budget airline, so the flights for such carriers are usually packed.

There were very few empty seats in the Premium Economy cabin, just not the seat next to mine, there is also no in-flight entertainment, so I downloaded a few shows from Netflix and Disney+ to help keep me entertained. 

This was my set-up, I was surprisingly able to fit my iPad on the table despite also having to allocate space for the food and drink. The meal was surprisingly decent, but because it was served 20 minutes into the flight, and this being only a 2 hours journey , I didn't actually have a lot of time to finish my food before the flight attendant had to clear my tray to prepare for landing. 

I did enjoy this set up though, when I flew EVA Air, I barely used their in-flight entertainment for anything other than listening to music because they didn't have any good shows to watch, so downloading shows on my iPad is definitely the way to go for future flights. Also my own earphones are a million times better than the airplane headphones,

This was the view from inside the airplane.

This is the view after the flight attendant had to clear my tray to prepare for landing.

I have been to Thailand multiple times when I was younger for family vacations, and it was one of those cheaper travel destinations for us back then, so my memories of Thailand has never really been very positive because it was always the "budget " country to visit as compared to Korea, Japan and Australia. Thailand was also where I developed a great disdain towards donuts during my younger years because I had Dunkin Donuts once there (food hygiene 2 decades ago there was horrible, there were literally flies just flying around the donuts) and ended up projectile vomiting in a restaurant due to food poisonings, I have since gotten over that disdain and have started consuming donuts again. 

Anyways, I landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport and this is one of 2 airports that is available in Bangkok, the other one being Don Muang Airport, my decision to come to this trip was very dependent on which airport I would arrive in, if I had to arrive at the latter, it would have been a no-go and it almost became a no-go because when I attempted to book this trip of Expedia, the only premium economy option they had for a budget carrier was Air Asia Thailand, and that carrier only lands at Don Muang.

Scoot was the only other budget airline that I was willing to take but they didn't have the premium economy option on Expedia, I thought they didn't have a premium economy seat until I went to their official website and found out they do, then immediately got my tickets from there whilst I was at work one day and proceeded to also book the hotel from Klook.

The reason why I wanted to land in Suvarnabhumi Airport is because there is an Express Train there that will get me to my hotel within 6 to 7 stops, with one transfer, but if I land in Don Muang, there isn't any Express Train there and I will have to take the regular train, which is 19 stops away and includes 1 transfer. 

Taxi is out of the question because I know how bad traffic can get in Bangkok, and the fact that I landed at around 5pm Bangkok time meant that it was evening peak hour, the jam is going to be abysmal, so arriving in which airport was extremely important to me.

Anyways, once I landed, I had to pee really badly, but then had to fight the urge to go pee first because I just wanted to get out of customs and soon as possible, that was not a good decision because I was literally swaying back and forth in the queue, just so everything will stay in, the queue wasn't slow, but the fact that I was going to burst made it feel very slow. I manage to get through customs dry, rushed to the toilet to get everything out of my system and headed for the baggage belt, collected my SIM Card and then went straight to the Train station. Literally do not even want to consider the taxi as an option.

Bangkok has 2 train system, 1 Underground Metro and 1 Sky Train, both have different operators, so if I wanted to get a metro card, I will have to get 2 different ones, which I thought is a bit dumb if I am only going to be there for 3 days, so I had to keep buying my tickets from the kiosk every time I wanted to go somewhere. The ticketing machines were easy to use so it was only a minor inconvenience. 

Here is my POV whilst I am on the train with the Sun literally glaring right at my face. It took me about an hour to get to my hotel using the train, which I would like to believe is faster than taking a taxi and potentially getting stuck in the jam and potentially suffering from massive motion sickness. 

I booked my stay at Solaria Nishitestsu, it's located right next to a Skytrain and very close to an Underground Metro Station, so getting around Bangkok was a breeze, there is also a huge shopping mall called Terminal 21 right next to it, which meant if I were to be feeling lazy to travel anywhere too far, I could just pop by the shopping mall for a meal.

Can I just say as well how lucky I am with my hotel room because I was given the top floor and the view I got from my room is this, I also forgot I booked the deluxe room instead of the standard room, so I also had a bathtub...

... it's such an amazing view! This was taken on the second day because by the time I reached the hotel, it was already night and the moment I got settled down, I headed straight out and took the train to Jodd Fair Night Market to officially start my trip.

It was very busy despite being a weekday night.

I needed a drink, so I headed over to the fruit juice store with the famous store owner. She is the one is white, and there were so many people just taking videos of her preparing the drinks.

She also speaks Mandarin, so she was able to converse with a lot of mandarin speaking tourist very easily.

Got myself a Mango Smoothie from her store, this was 160 Baht, which I later come to find out is very expensive compared to the other stores that sells the same stuff.

The great thing about Jodd Fair is that they have communal tables for people to sit down and have their food, which is something I don't remember seeing at the night markets in Taiwan and one of the reason why I didn't enjoy my Night Market experience there, because I really do not like to walk and eat, especially when my goal is to try as many food as possible, there is only so much food I can hold with both hands. 

This is what I got, a takoyaki with a very generous amounts of octopus as well as one of those coconut crepe things that were delicious. I found myself a table and could slowly take my time to enjoy the food, I thought I would be full after having the takoyaki and the crepes, but I still had space for more food, which made me very happy.

So I aimed for desserts and got myself a tanghulu, which was something I saw a lot at the Night Markets in Taipei but never bothered to get them. Well, I got the Shine Muscat Tanghulu and it was really quite nice.

Then had to get another drink because I was really thirsty, but decided to get from another juice store instead and this was less than half the price of the one I got from the first store. 

Then came the final Nightmarket food of the night, the one to end it all. 

Insects.

I just had to get one, and I figured, if I was going to go for an insect, I should go for the nastiest looking one.

So I opted for a Scorpion.

Also because for the rest of the bugs, I assumed they sold them in weight, and I didn't really want to have a dozen worms to have to eat through, so might as well just get one chonky monster instead.

I honestly still don't know how to describe my feelings when I was eating the scorpion, the claws and the head was easy to eat because they are mainly crunchy, but when we get to the main body, that was when I found it a lot more difficult to follow through because that's where all the different textures started coming in, it's not just crunch there, it's all the soft parts and I was just imagining all the innards squeezing it's way out of the scorpions' abdomen and into my mouth as I bit into it. It was gross, but at least it didn't taste bad, there was a bit of liquorice taste to the crunchy bits. 

After that, I headed back to the hotel, but first, made a quick stop to Terminal 21 to get a Lush bath bomb just so I could take full advantage of the bath tub.  Nothing like soaking in a bubble bath full of glitter after a sticky night out. There was a lot of glitter in the tub the next morning when the water finally dried up.

There was an Aunty Anne Pretzel stand next to the Lush store, so I got a sausage pretzel and a strawberry lemonade for supper.

On the second day of the trip, I headed over to one of the street food stand to get a cup of Ice Coffee, I have seen videos of this street vendor before on those YouTube videos and I was very happy it was located within walking distance from the hotel, so I decided to try it out, and getting drinks from this type of coffee cart is something I have always wanted to do.

I also got some bread from a bread shop from the train station on the way back to the hotel because I couldn't find any decent street food that I wanted on the way back.

Coffee was 35 baht, bread was 40 baht for 2. So my breakfast was only 75 baht, it was cheap! The total cost was less than the Mango smoothie I had at the night market. 

I tagged the coffee vendor on my insta story and she actually reposted it, so that was a pleasant surprise. 

After breakfast, I just chilled out in the hotel for a while before heading over to Jim Thompson House Museum, honestly didn't have much interest in Jim Thompson, but figured it would be a good visit anyways just to kill time. 

You can't actually walk around the place alone unless you go for a paid tour first and it was okay, I am literally one of the only few Asian tourist there, majority of the other tourist were Caucasians.

I was the only Asian in my tour group, everyone else was American and we were taken on a guided tour around the complex, it was a little humid that day, so I could just smell the scent that this Caucasian guy in front of me was emitting during the tour, it wasn't BO level stink, but it was close to it, like once he cools down somewhere and his shirt fully dries, it will develop into BO.

The tour was a little boring to me, I have to admit that, there was also nothing that interest me in the souvenir shop, everything was just a bit too expensive and not items that I would personally use on a daily basis, so I skipped those and just left right after the tour was done. My plans to actually have a drink at their café also didn't come to fruition because by the time the tour was over, the café was packed.

So right after that, I headed over to Sarthorn Pier, which is a few train station away from the museum, and took a taxi boat over to IconSiam.

I could have taken the Sky Train, but why take the Sky Train when you have the option to reach there via boat. I knew there was the express boat and then the regular boat, and I did my research online before my trip, so I knew I had to go to the Ferry Terminal and not the Boat Express Terminal because the latter is the more expensive option.

Turn right. Not left.

Here is a POV of me in the boat on the way to ICONSIAM. It was a very small boat compared to the rest I saw on the river, and when I got on the boat with 2 other Chinese tourist, the boat was shaking really violently because I think the driver lost control of it for a bit, I thought I was going to get wet because the water was so close to entering the boat from the excessive swaying.

It was quite a good experience nonetheless, here is a photo of the boat that I arrived in. It's probably the smallest taxi boat they have in their fleet.

When I got to ICONSIAM, I knew I wanted to get lunch at  Thipsamai at the 6th floor of the shopping mall, it was a very nice restaurant and I had to join a small queue, but was able to get a seat within 10 minutes.

One item that was a must order from what I read online, aside from their Pad Thai, was their orange juice. This orange juice was full of pulp and it was nice and sweet, it also cost more than the Pad Thai but I was able to get 2 cups worth of it from 1 bottle.  

The Pad Thai was also quite good, I got the cheaper option because I didn't really want to spend too much on Pad Thai. The juice ended up costing more than the food.

After that, I explored the mall a bit, walked to Takashimaya to see what they had to offer, was contemplating to get a swimming trunks so I can take advantage of the pool at the hotel, but spending $20 bucks just to use it once seems a bit excessive, so that idea was thrown out the window. I couldn't find any souvenirs as well because whatever they were selling were items I could probably get back in Singapore, it just seemed a bit pointless. I did contemplate getting a Squishmallow toy at Takashimaya though but none of the designs they had there were particularly nice.

My final destination was the indoor floating market at the basement and when I first entered the space, it looked alright, but when I finally stepped into the food stalls area,  it was suddenly so crowded. I was immediately turned off, and this is on a weekday afternoon, it was also off peak hour but it was still so packed.

I walked around for 10 minutes, didn't even bother thinking of getting anything to eat there because all the tables were occupied. I did manage to get some snacks for souvenirs home but after I got those, I was out.

This is how pack it looked as I was taking the elevator up, all the tables were taken up and there is literally no seats available. 

I headed back to the Pier right after, paid 10 baht for a ticket and this time, was assigned to one of the regular sized taxi-boats.

We were waiting for a while when the boat arrived because they had to wait for all the incoming passengers to disembark from the boat before we could enter, but then there was these 2 tourist who were taking their own sweet time taking photos as they were slowly walking up the walkway, and the person who was manning the gate eventually had to shout at them to tell them to stop taking photos so we could move things along.

Some people just really lack common sense and consideration for others. 

Anyways, the trip back was much smoother, but everyone who boarded the boat decided to sit on the left side of it because the view was better, I was actually worried that the boat will start to lean towards the left and capsize once it started moving, but thankfully, all I ended up getting was a few splashes from some large waves.

It was back to the hotel after that, but before that, I went to Terminal 21 again to get some snacks and chose to get a Cinnabon and Thai Green Milk Tea.

I didn't have to queue for this Cinnabon, but I am looking forward to try the one in Singapore soon, I read that the one at Terminal 21 is actually not a good representation of the product because they don't make it fresh there, and it was indeed quite hard, but the flavour is still good, so I can only imagine how much better a fresh, soft and fluffy one would actually taste like. 

I got the Thai Green Milk Tea because I'm in Thailand and getting a Thai Milk Tea just feels like a necessity.

This is my view as I took my time to snack on the Cinnabon and sip my Thai Green Milk tea, this is honestly one of the best hotel view I can ask for, I just like the juxtaposition between the peace and quiet of my hotel room and the hectic traffic that is happening outside.

I just lazed around in the hotel room for a good while blasting Taylor Swift's new re-release album on Spotify.

After a few hours of just updating my Insta-story and then just doing nothing in the hotel room, I headed out to Terminal 21 for my dinner, I had wanted to go to Siam and explore the malls, but figured it was probably going to be crowded as fuck after my experience at the ICONSIAM floating market, so I save that for the next day in the late morning when I know the crowds will be minimal.

I was in the mall at around 7.30pm because I had assumed that was when the dinner crowd will start to dissipate, I mean that is usually the time the dinner crowd starts dissipating in Singapore, so I thought the same will apply in Bangkok, but I was wrong, it was still crowded as fuck. I didn't even bother to try looking for a space in the food court because the line to just get the cash card for the food court was already a snaking queue.

This is one of the downside of solo-travelling, I can't have someone "chop" a seat for me while I go get my food. 

Decided to just explore the mall properly, I mean there are about 8 stories to explore, so I went up and down the mall probably 4 times...

... got myself a milkshake and then just sat at one of the benches that's around the mall and tried to wait the dinner crowd out. It didn't die down, I was so tempted to just go back to the hotel and wait in my room, but decided to just stick around in the mall because I had already been stuck in my room for hours prior.

After a while, I tried to explore the mall again and seeing how the foodcourt was still insanely packed at 8.30pm, I tried to look at one of the restaurants and came across CoCo Curry because it was one of the few places that had no queue.

It feel so weird having Japanese food in Thailand, but here I am, having CoCo Curry for dinner. It was a decent meal but I was a bit upset that I didn't have Thai food.

After that, I headed to the super market at the basement level and got more snacks to bring home, came across their fresh juice area and got myself a bottle of orange juice to see if it would be as good as the one I had for lunch at Thipsamai.  

It wasn't as good, it was equally pulpy and very fresh, but there was also this really weird wok hey taste, it's really really odd.

I also did something that's a bit out of character for me, I went to visit the roof top bar at the hotel and it was a very nice experience. Got myself a Singapore Sling and had a free serving of yam chips. I am not much of a alcohol drinker, so the drinking part itself was not a good experience, but being able to enjoy the Bangkok night sky was really really nice. 

It's would have been a perfect spot to hang out with a close friend and just chat the night away, but alas, I was alone, so I left after I finish my drink, which I did take my time to slowly consume.

This is the view from the other side of the hotel, it's facing a river, it's pretty nice as well.

On the last day of the trip, I was planning to go back to the coffee cart again to get another cup of coffee, but as I was heading over, I was also thinking about what to get for breakfast, then I came across a café and decided to just have my breakfast there instead.

I ordered Caramelized Banana French Toast and an Oat Milk Café Latte...

... I got Bacon French Toast and Regular Café Latte.

The waitress got both my orders wrong, even though I had pointed to her the item I wanted directly from the menu, was literally pointing to her the picture of the items I wanted, I knew my order was fucked when I saw the barista pouring fresh milk into a cup, (flashback to when Starbucks did that to me twice)  and then seeing that cup be brought to my table, and when I saw the bacon on my French toast, I started to question if I was the one who had fucked up, but it definitely wasn't me, and I honestly also cannot be bothered to correct her mistake when she got my food out, figured since they had already made it, I will just eat it, plus with the language barrier that was happening between the waitress and myself, it would only make things more difficult.

That being said, I will admit I am quite happy with the Bacon French Toast mistake, it is nice to have a bit of savory in the morning, the coffee was alright, I would have preferred Oat Milk over regular milk. 

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading over the Siam again to do some shopping, spoiler alert, I'm not much of a shopper so I didn't get anything. 

I visited 3 different malls, Siam Discovery (pictured above)...

...Siam Centre (pictured above) and Siam Paragon (which I didn't take a picture of), there was nothing to get. I did start contemplating whether to get a Squishmallow again when I was at Siam Paragon though because they were selling it at the departmental store, and I was choosing one of the medium size one when this Caucasian kid came over and started playing around with it. That was when I realize I was too fucking old for this and left the section out of embarrassment.

I also didn't have space to store the Squishmallow because the luggage I brought over was way too small to squeeze the Squishmallow in and bringing in on the plane is just embarrassing, especially because I know there will be another person seated right next tome. I might end up just getting one from Toy'R'Us in Singapore though because it's so nice to hug.

Before I left the mall, I knew I wanted to get some more Thai Crepes before I ended my trip because the one from Jodd Fair was so good, came across this atas looking one and ordered 6 salty option to try out since I already had the sweet ones at the fair.

It's not nice. 

The sweet ones were so much nicer, and there are too many things happening with the version from this store. Expensive doesn't always mean good and in this case, I feel like it was just over done, if this had been my introduction to the dish, I would have hated it.

The hotel check out was suppose to be at 12noon, but I was given a free extension until 1.30pm, so I just relaxed in my hotel room until about 1.20pm as I struggled to finish all that crepe as well as the orange juice I got the night before, and then officially checked out.

The hotel staff was very automatic and asked me if I would like to store my bag with them until I was ready to actually leave the area, so I gladly told them I would like to come back an hour later to collect my luggage and headed to Terminal 21 again for my lunch.

The foodcourt was still crowded as fuck and because I was still so fucking full from forcing myself to finish the Thai Crepe, I knew I could only have something light, like a salad, and I knew there was one in the mall somewhere, so I went to look for it and found it at the basement.

So this is my last meal for the trip, Duck and Arugula Salad with a Watermelon Smoothie. 

I hated it.

I have eaten Arugula before, so I am aware that it leaves a bitter aftertaste, but the bitterness from this Arugula salad is next level, it was so fucking bitter, and it was also super peppery, not because there was pepper in the salad but because the Arugula itself also left a very spicy peppery aftertaste.

The balsamic vinaigrette did fuck all to mask the horrible after taste, I had such a difficult time finishing the salad. I would literally choose to eat the scorpion over this salad, that's how bad it was.

The watermelon smoothie was good though.

Didn't really have any time to do anymore walking around after that meal, so I headed straight back to the hotel, got my luggage and made my way to the airport via the metro.  Taking the taxi in Bangkok just didn't make sense to me because of bad traffic is, it is sometimes so much faster to just take the train, plus it's also much cheaper. I spend about $200 on this trip, and this wasn't me trying to be on a budget, I was just buying what I wanted to buy and it only cost me $200, if I got the squishmellow then maybe it would be $250, but overall it was really very affordable.

Here is the POV of me at the Airport Express Train line, waiting for the train, it was really humid that day, very much like Singapore.

I was able to reach the Airport within an hour, checked my luggage in, and didn't have to join a long queue because I am on Scootplus, so that meant I had the Priority Check-In. This was not present at Changi Airport though, check in at Changi Airport was so fucking slow because there were so many passengers and no priority check in for Scootplus.

Headed into the departure area soon after, had to queue up again to officially enter the departure hall, there was a lot of noise pollution happening because there were a lot of PRCs, it wasn't the most pleasant queuing experience.

Before I headed to my Gate, I got myself a slushie from Dairy Queen, would have preferred to get a Blizzard Ice Cream but I was still feeling really jelat from the Thai Crepe I had that morning, so I went for the slushie. 

As I was waiting for the Gate to open, I was approached by someone whom I thought was trying to sell me stuff for charity because I saw she was wheeling around bags of little pouches with her and carrying a clipboard, thankfully all she wanted was for me to help her with a survey about my trip in Bangkok, so I did the survey because why not, and she ended up giving me a free pouch for it.

It's quite a cute pouch, I will be able to use it to store my electrical cables for future travels.

After a while, the gate was opened for us and everyone headed in to wait for boarding. As someone who got Scootplus, I was expecting to get priority boarding, because that's what I got at Changi, Scootplus passengers were asked to board first.

Well, when the airport staff opened the gate for us to start boarding the plane, they did tell all Scootplus passengers to board the plane first, but because some dumb fucks who aren't Scootplus passengers didn't listen, they started to swamp the gate and for some reason, the person who was checking the ticket to let the passengers in didn't bother to enforce the priority boarding.

I didn't bother to join the queue that had formed, I just cut into the front of the line because I had priority boarding and I felt like an asshole doing it even though I had every right to. 

It's like they are only offering just one of the 2 Priority that Scootplus Passengers are entitled to and you just need to see how lucky you are whether the airport staff decides to enforce them or not.

When I am coming to Bangkok from Singapore, they don't have Priority Check In for Luggage, but they have Priority Boarding.

When I am going back to Singapore to Bangkok, I get Priority Check in for Luggage, but don't get Priority Boarding.

Sigh.

I knew I wasn't going to get 2 seats to myself on the return trip as well because I had already checked the flight seats online prior, but the flight itself was pretty smooth sailing. I was able to finish my meal on time this time round because I ordered the ragout, which took significantly lesser time to consume.

A view of the setting Sun on my way back home.

Overall, I would rate this trip a great success. It wasn't a long trip, so I didn't have time to get attached to the country and was able to avoid getting the post travel blues, it did however help scratch that travel itch that I got after returning from my Taipei trip 2 months ago.

 

If I were to compare the 2 countries, I still very much prefer Taipei, but Bangkok makes for a fantastic last minute travel destination and I much prefer the street food that Bangkok night market has to offer. The main thing I hate about Bangkok is just the insane crowd and the scorching heat and humidity, but everything else is pretty awesome.

Oh, and the fucking Arugula Salad.

Update 19/7/2023 : I realize I was on the coffee vendor's YouTube livesteam because she does livestream everyday and my gawd, I look so lanky and awkward in it. Also because my posture was so bad, I just look like that spongebob meme when I was walking away from the store.

 It's funny but also mortifying.

That also explains why the vendor was mumbling to herself a lot because she was constantly greeting her livestream viewers through a mic that she wore on her apron.