A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

Finally its time to leave Bali, went to have lunch before leaving for Denpasar Airport



Kangkong terasi (balacan)


Long bean with beef


Chili lala


Daochiu Grouper


Have to say we enjoyed this meal as the taste is great with lots of wok smell

Took ages to upload the first 10 images at the zoo here are the remaining 10. Just shocked how slow the uploading is.

Shot of monkey in cage i had to adjust the lens to make the cage less visible which i posted in an earlier picture



1 more



Spotted deer. Shooting animals behind a cage is challenging. More often than not you cannot move your camera right at the holes or they are too small for the entire lens to shoot through


animal statues



storks. when they flap their wings you can hear a loud sound.









tram rides



sleeping tigers couldn't get a good shot blocked by too many people

Last trip to Bali was 2006 this time round realized it has a new International Terminal and the old International terminal was converted to domestic. Have to day its really crowded and busy in the domestic terminal, have a feeling its like completely new and wide spaces and modern in design internally.

Welcome


Spaciousness


Shops














Massage


Coffee shop


My $2.80 kopi-O

Never heard of this airline Sriwijaya until my staff booked for me. My ride a 737-500



As the ticket is inexpensive so chose biz class where they serve a simple mean which don't really look great

Curry chicken

Finally arrived in Jakarta around 5.15pm. Dinner at a local rib joint.

Gram with sambal




Beef rib soup


Barker beef rib


Barkar chicken


Long bean with sambal

Had a great meal at somboon seafood. It has many branches in BKK. I visited the original one i think near MBK area.



Their famous signature dish is the curry crab





The grouper fish is also another famous dish





Oyster omelette is another famous dish of course well known to sinkies

Jah_rastafar_I said:

Had a great meal at somboon seafood. It has many branches in BKK. I visited the original one i think near MBK area.

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There are only 5 branches in Bangkok the one you went is probably the Bantadthong branch. Their seafood is always very consistent in quality and taste one will never go wrong with it. If one hops into a taxi and tells the driver to bring you to the nearest Somboon one will probably end up in a "copy" Somboon which is bad in taste, quality and expensive as there are many similar shops so please be careful. Look out for the real deal here http://www.somboonseafood.com/e-branches.html

Many Thais feels that Somboon is too expensive and more for foreigners although they crave to go dine there but there are many cheaper local alternatives however Somboon's cooking style and taste is rather unique.

Oh please take note to bring enough cash as Somboon believes in cash only, no credit cards.

http://www.somboonseafood.com/index.php

For most of us men going back to the same barber is important right? I mean one does not wanna make any mistake with a bad hairdo by an unfamiliar barber. I have two regular barbers in Thailand near my home been using them for a long time. Both charges 70 baht for a haircut and full shave. That's about $2.80.

Today in Jakarta I needed a haircut badly couldn't wait till I get back on Tuesday as I arrive late and have to fly off again early the nest day. So I have to look for a barber here. My staff told me there are many around but its not hygienic charges only $1.50 to $2. Obviously I cannot do this so the other alternative is hair saloon. Then another staff told me there is a chain of called PAXI and there's one near me so I went to the mall for my hair cut.

To my surprise the price is not cheap





So for a cut and a shave it'll be like $15 which is Singapore price but then what to do still got to cut.

Have to say the $15 is worth because the barber do not reuse the cloths and towers used for each customer all are newly washed for each customer. Also for the shave it comes in a set like this consisting the brush, cream and a bowl of hot water, the barber will deep the brush into the hot water first then cream then apply to face so it feels warm.



Towels used are also hot before and after shave. A great experience indeed.

Storm at the horizon

I am glad I could find a decent BKT joint near my rented condo in Jakarta. Taste is good, like Singapore's



Funny about Indonesian Chinese they seem to love all the Singapore food which is why everywhere one goes in Jakarta can sure find a food joint Singapore this and Singapore that. On the second floor of this tiny building where Song Fa is located you see these







By the way the bkt comes at sinkie price not Indon price so its not cheap

Froggy said:

There are only 5 branches in Bangkok the one you went is probably the Bantadthong branch. Their seafood is always very consistent in quality and taste one will never go wrong with it. If one hops into a taxi and tells the driver to bring you to the nearest Somboon one will probably end up in a "copy" Somboon which is bad in taste, quality and expensive as there are many similar shops so please be careful. Look out for the real deal here http://www.somboonseafood.com/e-branches.html

Many Thais feels that Somboon is too expensive and more for foreigners although they crave to go dine there but there are many cheaper local alternatives however Somboon's cooking style and taste is rather unique.

Oh please take note to bring enough cash as Somboon believes in cash only, no credit cards.

http://www.somboonseafood.com/index.php

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Yup that's the bantadthong branch. I read all the reviews before choosing this one, some had very bad reviews I even knew what I wanted to order before I reached the place due to the food recommendations given by other reviewers. I always pay by cash never by card.

Jah_rastafar_I said:

Yup that's the bantadthong branch. I read all the reviews before choosing this one, some had very bad reviews I even knew what I wanted to order before I reached the place due to the food recommendations given by other reviewers. I always pay by cash never by card.

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Thanks for the information today on the Safari World, now I know what to do there instead of just driving around the safari. Do post some photos if you have the time. Too bad this trip of yours I'm in Indo if not it'll be very fun again at Makmai like the last time.

Froggy said:

Thanks for the information today on the Safari World, now I know what to do there instead of just driving around the safari. Do post some photos if you have the time. Too bad this trip of yours I'm in Indo if not it'll be very fun again at Makmai like the last time.

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I will post the pics and the videos. The only reason why I didn't post more videos or pics is Cos of the slow uploading time. Took more than an hour to upload the Somboon food pics and more than 2 hours for the zoo pics that's why I posted the 1st 10 pics separately. Once I'm back to sg everything is going to be uploaded in a flash.

Jah_rastafar_I said:

Had a great meal at somboon seafood. It has many branches in BKK. I visited the original one i think near MBK area.

Click to expand...

I looked at the map & this station is near to the Stadium MRT station, but roughly how far is it if I were to walk there

Went to a nasi Padang shop lunch today





Very delicious. Price only about $4.50

johnny333 said:

I looked at the map & this station is near to the Stadium MRT station, but roughly how far is it if I were to walk there

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Probably 10-20 mins but keep in mind bkk streets are not like sg streets sometimes it's full of road side stalls, trash and people. Better you take a motorcycle taxi many thais do that you reach your destination easily

khaosan road

Anyway i visited safari world located ramintra soi 109. It's a safari and a zoo combined together.

Reached there at 1pm so it's late. Took like 1 hour to reach from central bkk.

The safari is called safari park



The zoo is called marine park but it shows many land animals



Admission prices



Show times. Zoos all over the world have some of those shows. The orang utan show was good but i wished i could have watched the elephant one



This is the inside since it has both a safari and a zoo and some people drive in with their cars while others need to rent a coach and some ppl might not want to visit the zoo but just drive into the safari that explains why it has another entrance with a few extra ticketing booths inside

Since the dolphin show was already starting when i got the tickets i decided to visit the zoo first.

Recorded vids of the show

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OEjjj3c_TDs" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NvjV1hqfUzI" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>



Next one was spy wars a rather odd show couldn't catch the storyline but arrived late anyway

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vehURBS9P_E" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>



Lastly was the orang utan show

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/W98NX2rYrk8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>

After the show





Afterwards it was looking at the various animals

orang utans

teenager



Adult someone gave him a canned drink



Kangeroo



White tiger



giraffe feeding station. Feed them bananas for 100 bht





black bear



parrots and macaws



i believe these are capybaras



crocodiles

Next it was time for the safari.

Had to miss a show to make sure i didn't miss the safari. It closes at 5pm while the zoo closes at 6pm but the zoo is pretty much empty by 5pm and the animals will be led back to their cages out of sight to visitors.

If you don't have a vehicle you can rent a coach for 30bht but of course it has scheduled timing and he won't stop any longer for you to take pictures unlike driving your own car there. I was lucky the coach was pretty empty so i could change seats moving from left side to the right to take pictures so it depends on your luck if your coach if crowded you won't be able to take proper pics cos the animals are sometimes on the left or right side when it moves through the safari. The entire thing took about half an hour to complete. No leaving your vehicle obviously. Taking good shots were challenging cos i was shooting behind a glass window with the sunlight reflecting off it and the driver didn't stay long at each spot. Around 2-3 mins before he moves off so you need to be quick.

Zebra



zebras with a great view in the distance





Camels



Rhinos





storks



Giraffes that i saw at the feeding station earlier. You see them from another angle





Deer



I believe these 2 fighting animals are oryxes.



Tigers







Peacock showing off to peahens