Dining & Shopping in Bangkok Don Mueang Airport

Due to our return trip from Bangkok was fall on lunch hour, we planned to have our early lunch in airport. However Don Mueang Airport was strange to us, so we made our preparation by surveyed the restaurants in airport. After reading some blogs, we found out there are several restaurants serving various kind of foods. Hence, we made up our mind to take the lunch there.

On that day, by taking the A1 bus from Mo Chit BTS station, we arrived the Don Mueang Airport slightly early than expected. Initially we tried to look for the restaurants in the public areas but only 2 or 3 restaurants includes The Noodle, Meefann and Silom Village which offers the rice and noodles in Thai or Chinese style. Since we had did our homework and knew that there were few more restaurants in the airport, hence we decided to check in and expected the other restaurants are in the awaiting area. We were making right decision.

Upon entering the restricted area which linked to the international flight departure hall, we were seeing two rows of shop and restaurant nicely arrange in our left and right side.

Shops on my left

Shops on my right

Since our stomach had started to make noise, so we were looking around to hunt for good food. Among the restaurant or fast food or coffee house that we observed include Piri-Piri Flaming Chicken, Subway, McDonald, S& P, etc.

Restaurants in Don Mueang Airprot

After trying various local foods for few days, we were missing our favourite Japanese food, hence we finally chosen Fuji Restaurant as our lunch venue.

Fuji Restaurant Don Mueang Airport

Among the Japanese food, sashimi is always my favourite. When I noticed that there was a sashimi set with reasonable price, I had made my order instantly without screen through the whole menu. Would like to know what are the items in the sashimi set?? Let's check it out in photo below.

Sashimi Set

Beside the sashimi and rice, there was also a small piece of chicken, vegetable, miso soup, and also jelly as dessert. My stomach is totally full after finished off this whole set of meal.

Beside this sashimi set, we also ordered a bowl of salmon porridge. It was very delicious because we could taste the freshness of the salmon. Furthermore, there was also salmon egg being added to enhance the taste.

Salmon Porridge

However, I'm not sure whether this item is still available because I could not find it in the recent Fuji on line menu. If we have chance to revisit Fuji restaurant, we will definitely place an order on this salmon porridge, provided it is still available.

In terms of the drinks, we got ourselves a bottle of green tea and a glass of coconut frost. The green tea is slightly sweet in taste but nothing special. However, the coconut frost is very tasty, especially for those who love the coconut milk.

Coconut Frost

Fuji Restaurant

If I remember correctly, the lunch only cost me not more than RM60. Just imagine we were taking lunch in airport, some more in Japanese Restaurant. The price was definitely reasonable than my expectation.

After treated our stomach, we went for window shopping. For those duty free shops, nothing surprising where the items offered include tobacco, wine & liqueur, perfumes and chocolate. But there was a shop that making us so excited, which is the NaRaYa.

NaRaYa in Don Mueang Airport 

For those who love the NaRaYa products, I believe shopping had almost being done in Bangkok city. We never aware that inside the Don Mueang Airport we could find this shop again. Initially we just went for window shopping, but later we found that the products offered at this shop had not being seen in other branches while the item price was also similar. As you could imagine, another round of shopping was done in this NaRaYa shop before we board into the plane.

Initially I thought that Don Mueang Airport is just an old airport with limited facility. But this round of experience making me putting different view on this airport. I believe I'll be landing on this airport again soon!

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Food Not To Miss In Bangkok 2013

Before my trip to Bangkok, I had surveyed the website and travel guide to look for some local foods that supposed not to miss out. By looking at my travelling plan, there were three foods that I able to taste it out, which include the Coconut Ice Cream, Chicken Rice and Mango Sticky Rice.

According to the travel website, Coconut Ice Cream is an item that you should not miss during your trip to Chatuchak. But please take note that there are more than one stall selling this special ice cream. When we pass the first stall, luckily we did not buy it because we noticed that there was not many customer. But after we walked around to find some other foods, then we met another ice cream stall that full with customers.

Coconut Ice Cream Stall

I'm not sure whether it is the best in Chatuchak, but looking at the crowd, I believe the ice cream should be in good taste. By following the queue, finally came to our turn. Besides the coconut and ice cream, we were entitle for another 2 toppings. We preferred the corn and attap seed.

Various Choice of Toppings

By paying 40 Baht for the ice cream, surprisingly we were giving a cup of fresh coconut water too.

Coconut Ice Cream

For those who could read the Thai writing, perhaps you could recognize the Thai words in the small flag to ease you in looking for the stall, if you would like to try the ice cream too.

The second food we tried was the Pratunam Chicken Rice where we found the information from the travel guide booklet.  Since we planned our shopping in The Platinum Fashion Mall, hence we decided to try this famous chicken rice that located near by to the mall. Due to the direction in the travel guide was bit confusing, we then referred to the locals to get the right direction. When we almost reached the shop, we noticed from far where there were queue in front of the stall. The staffs in pink t-shirt were busy in serving the customer.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

Pratunam Chicken Rice

In Mandarin, the shop is named as ‘水门老子号’.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

Due to there were so many people would like to try this chicken rice, it was full house when we reached there. We almost waited for 20 minutes before we grabbed our seat.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

The chicken offered in this shop is a boiled chicken, not roasted chicken that commonly find in Malaysia. Due to we had our lunch in Platinum Fashion Mall earlier, hence we only ordered a plate of chicken rice plus some chicken gizzard and liver to test the taste.

Chicken Rice

Chicken Gizzard & Liver

I would said that the chicken rice was cook in Hainan style. Although it was tasty, but the similar chicken rice could also be found in Penang. However, there was something special, which is the sauce.

Sauce

As you could see from the photo above, the soya sauce was added with the chilli. Although it was very spicy but it make the chicken to be even tasty. A plate of chicken rice only cost us at 40 Baht.

The third food that we tested was the Mango Sticky Rice. Due to mango sticky rice is very common in Bangkok, initially we thought to get it from the shopping mall. However, when I watch Youtube in the hotel, eventually the programme was introducing the mango sticky rice from Mae Varee. Hence, without second thought we decided to test it out.

By taking BTS to Thong Lo station and follow Exit 3, we finally found the Mae Varee shop. My first impression on this shop was they had a lot of mango...

Mae Varee

Mae Varee

According to the TV programme published in Youtube, Mae Varee is selling fresh fruits include mango, so the sticky rice served by this shop could be accompanied with fresh mango fruit. When we were there, we met two Chinese ladies. After chitchatting, we found out they were also being here after followed the travel guide booklet.

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice

The mango sticky rice pack consisted of fresh mango, green and white sticky rice, peanut, and coconut milk. Before you eat, mix the sticky rice with peanut and then pour coconut milk on top of it. Then with a scoop of rice plus a piece of mango, the taste is extremely good. If I'm not mistaken, a pack of mango sticky rice was cost us at 100 Baht.

The three foods listed above are among the tasty food I tried out in Bangkok, perhaps you could consider to give it a try, since they are so famous and being recommended by most of the tourists. Enjoy!

Pratunam Chicken Rice
Address: Petchburi Soi 30, Bangkok, Thailand
Business hour: Daily from 5.30am-3pm & 5pm-3am

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice 
Address: 1 Soi Thong Lor Road, Sukhumvit Soi 55, Klongtunnua Wattana, Bangkok
Business hour: 5am-11pm for Mango Sticky Rice but 24 hours for mango fruits

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Chatuchak Weekend Market-Bangkok 2013

Before I travel, whenever I informed my friends that I'm going to Bangkok and asking where are places that I should not missed, most of the replies was including the Chatuchak Weekend Market. However, there is another statement followed by the recommendation which is 'the Chatuchak is very hot'..haha..

Chatuchak Weekend Market Signboard

Chatuchak Weekend Market is running the business on every Saturday and Sunday from 6am to 6pm. To be there, we could choose all sort of public transport, from BTS, MRT, buses, taxi and tuk-tuk. Of course, I took the most convenience way which is BTS and stopped at Mo Chit station. 

Mo Chit BTS Station

When we reached, not even need to see the signboard yet we already know the direction. This is because all people was moving towards the same direction. 

Mo Chit BTS Station to Chatuchak Weekend Market

To avoid the crowd, we made ourselves to be there around 9.30am. According to my friends, sometimes there would be pickpocket especially during peak hour where it is too crowded. Hence, it would be better to visit this weekend market early in the morning, not too hot and crowded.

Before step into this Chatuchak market, I really could not imagine how wide is the area, even though keep on told by friends that there is chance to be lost within the market. Anyway, all the information given is absolutely true, the Chatuchak market is really big and we really lost in it. When I checked online then only I discovered that the market covered area of 27 acres, mainly divided into 27 sections that consisted of 15,000 booths.

Way to Chatuchak Market

In this weekend market, almost what you could expect would be appeared there. I wish to share a tip with you here: while you walking around and see something you would like to buy, please purchase it immediately. Don't try to postpone it and decide to come back later. If you are not really good in memorize the location, I guarantee that you won't be able to find the booth later.

Below are some booths or items I managed to snap shot. Of course there are many more.

Surprisingly there is also pest and its food selling in the market.

In terms of the price, I would say it depends on the items and also the booth owner. Anyway it is still within the acceptable price range. If you want to buy small items as souvenir, then you should get it here.

In terms of food and beverages, there are various choices here. I read from someone's blog that recommended about the grilled seafood but I can't find it.

After walk for a while, we found the traditional ice stick with several carbonated drinks as flavour. If I'm not mistaken, it is sold at 10 Baht.

The taste was not surprising but at least it could help to cool us down a bit under the hot sun.

But there is a coconut ice cream that you should not miss. It is not the coconut flavor ice cream but ice cream in coconut. The taste is really good and special. But there is more than one stall, so please look for the right one ya..

After surveyed, look like this stall having the most fans, so we decided to try its ice cream. Beside the coconut and ice cream, you are entitle to have another two types of topping which include corn, peanut, attap seed, purple rice, etc. The 40 Baht selling price is including a cup of fresh coconut water. We like it very much.

Here are some other food stalls, we didn't try but they look delicious too.

We spent almost 3 hours in this Chatuchak Weekend Market. As mentioned above, we lost in the market and couldn't find the way we got in. But luckily we noticed the BTS railway, so we followed the railway direction and finally got back to Mo Chit station.

Although we got sweated during our visit to this market, but we still think that it worth to visit. Enjoy!

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Terminal 21 Shopping Mall - Bangkok 2013 Part II

Time to continue with the Part II. Since we are not the 'shopping kaki' (means people who likes shopping), I found bit difficult to share out the shopping experience. However, I still try to describe a bit, especially on the decoration and interior design that making us to revisit it again and again.

After having our dinner at the food court (as described in Part I), we started to explore this shopping mall. As you might be aware, the name 'Terminal 21' is hinting us that this shopping mall is using airport terminal as their theme. 

The Departure Terminal

The Arrival Terminal

Beside Istanbul and Paris, other 'Terminals' do include Rome, London and etc. Hence, without spend even 1 cent, you could fly around the world! haha..

At each floor, there is a theme where the unique culture or landmark for certain country is adopted as the mall design and decoration. Below are some snapshot taken during our visit..

See, we reached London already. haha..But for the next minute, we travel again...and our next destination is....

Japan! We came to Japan. Although UK is in Europe and Japan in Asia, but we moving between these two countries within a minute's time, wonderful right? The rest of  the 'attracted areas' just leave for your own exploration.

I'm not really know about the branded shops, but just randomly took few photos for memory.

At ground floor, there were many dessert counters, mainly selling different flavour of cakes. It is having a nice look and very unique. Perhaps it could serve as your snack whenever you are tired and hungry after a full fight shopping. Hehe!

Another exciting area that I would like to highlight is at Lower Ground floor.There was a supermarket named Gourmet Market. Of course the grocery is same as others, but I really amazed by the creativeness of promotional method by Thai people. Egg is a normal item in the market, you may not even have a look on it if you don't need it; but when it is sold in this way, at least it draw your attention and reminding you that you might need it too.

After all, Terminal 21 Shopping Mall was attracting me who not really like shopping, but the mall design and decoration really made me excited because I can't find this creativeness in my home town here.

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BTS - Self-dependent Bangkok Transportation

Recently I was informed by friend that he was having bad experience during his Bangkok trip. I'm so surprise when heard his feedback because I'm having such wonderful experience in Bangkok few months ago. After chatting then only I knew that he was so disappointed with the transportation which was the tuk tuk that over charged him. As a foreigner that not good with the local language, he has no choice but to accept any request by the tuk tuk driver when they were brought to the strange places.

Although my friend was having such bad experience with the tuk tuk service, but I strongly believe he was so unlucky to met up with the dishonest driver because most my friends have no problem in taking the tuk tuk service.

Frankly speaking, I'm the type of traveller that dislike such bad experience that going to spoil my entire travel plan. I always prefer to take public transport like MRT or bus rather than taxi and tuk tuk. It is because MRT or bus is having their declared travelling route, but taxi and tuk tuk is totally depending on the driver. How would we know they are bringing us to the actual destination? Due to this reason, almost 95% of my Bangkok trip was depending on the BTS system and I had no issue with the transportation at all. Therefore, I would like to share out my experience with BTS and some attractions that could be reached by BTS, to serve as some tips to visitor who prefer the public transport like me.

Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS Skytrain)

BTS is also commonly called as sky train due to the railway is an elevated system. There are two main route service provided by BTS which are Sukhumvit Line and Silom Line, and it is consists of  34 stations.

BTS Route

If your flight arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport, you could take the Airport Rail Link to BTS Phaya Thai station and then continue the journey with BTS. In case your flight is arrived at Don Mueang Airport, then you could take the Airport A1 Bus to BTS Mo Chit station and take BTS to your destination.

Is there any hotel located within walking distance from the BTS station? The answer is 'Yes'. Since I stayed in Manhattan Bangkok Hotel, hence I only able to list out those hotels nearby the BTS Asok station. The hotels include Manhattan Bangkok Hotel, Westin Hotel Sukhumvit, Four Points By Sheraton and Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. All hotels listed here could be easily reached within 5 to 10 mins walk from Asok station. If you prefer other area, of course you could search the hotels out there on-line.

Below are some attractions which could be reached by BTS (places where we visited earlier):

Regarding the ticket, there are few options offer to the visitor like us, but commonly people prefer either single journey ticket or Rabbit Card (store value card). If you plan to take BTS as your main transportation in Bangkok, then it is recommended to purchase the Rabbit Card. To get a new card, I paid for 200 Baht. 50 Bath is for issuing fee (promotion until 31 Dec 2013, regular fee at 150 Baht), another 50 Baht is for card deposit (can be redeemed back upon returning the card), and 100 Baht as stored value. Purchase and top up card value to be done at ticketing counter. By using this Rabbit Card, you could skip the long queue especially during after work or after school hours. Furthermore, the trip fare is cheaper if Rabbit Card is used instead of the single journey ticket.

Adult Rabbit Card

Although the BTS ticket fare is not as cheap as Malaysia and Singapore (regardless the exchange rate), but we are safe from any risk of overprice that possibly charged by the dishonest taxi or tuk tuk driver. Hence, if I am to visit Bangkok again, BTS would be still my top preferred transportation.

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Terminal 21 Shopping Mall - Bangkok 2013 Part I

As mentioned in my previous post about the review of The Manhattan Hotel Bangkok, Terminal 21 Shopping Mall is just within walking distance from the hotel. Furthermore, this new shopping mall is linked to the Asok BTS station where we were reported to it everyday.

Outlook of Terminal 21

Terminal 21 Shopping Mall (Snapshot from Asok BTS Station)

Initially we thought to continue explore in Chinatown after visited Wat Arun, but later we changed our plan to hang out in Terminal 21. As you could imagine, after walked for few hours under the hot sun, we were sweated and really uncomfortable. Hence, we went back to hotel to take shower and later walked to this new shopping mall, Termnal 21.

Upon entering, you would be welcome by the staff in smart uniform. The visitors are required to be 'scan' through by the metal detector, similar to the one in airport. My first impression on Terminal 21 is this shopping mall worth to be revisit. Although there were numerous visitors but the mall design made us didn't feel like in a such crowded environment.

Before we started to look around, we proceed to the food court to treat our stomach to build up the necessary energy. As usual, the food court is located at the top floor.

Golden Gate Bridge in Terminal 21

Terminal 21 Food Court

When you took the escalator up to the food court, you would definitely noticed the miniature 'Golden Gate Bridge'. It is too sharp in drawing my attention along the ways.

Before proceed to order, please get your Pier 21 Food Terminal Card ready! What is it?? It is a deposit card which you could buy from the coupon counter. Just inform the staff how much you would like to deposit in the card and they would process it for you. Of course, the same card could be topped up the credit later on. How about if we could not use up all the credit in the card? Don't worry, the remaining credit in the card could be cash out upon you return the card to the coupon counter.

Pier 21 Food Terminal Card

Coupon Counter Sellng Food Terminal Card

Direction of Use of the Food Terminal Card

The Food Terminal Card was serving as debit card during our purchase in the food court. After place the order, the staff in food stalls would request for your card and swap to charge the food price. The card value or credit would be deducted. The card together with the receipt would be gave back to you. Oh ya, as usual the food court is operated in self service style, so please collect our own food after place order ya!!

The food court was offering various food includes local Thai style food, Chinese food, Western food and etc. Since there were too many people during the dinner hour, it was full house and quite hard to get a seat. As a result, we unable to take many photos but still manage to snap shot few as below.

Beef Noodles Terminal 21 Food Court

When I went around to seek for the good food, I noticed that the Beef noodles counter put on a very attractive menu board. I was attracted by the mixed beef combination which consisted of beef and its inner parts. The portion looked like big enough while cost only 60 Baht, if I remember correctly. However, when the food was served, I found that the portion was quite small, not as shown in the menu board. A bit disappointed!

Since we took the Thai style mixed rice (rice with meat and vegetable cooked in Thai style), I decided to order a bowl of soup for better digestion. I ended up order a bowl of fish maw soup. The fish maw soup was quite tasty, but just bit viscous.

Fish Maw Soup Terminal 21

In overall, the food in this food court not really met to my appetite, I more preferred the food offered in Platinum Mall food court. If you look for convenient, then to settle your lunch or dinner in this food court could be still an option.  However, if it is affordable, you might want to consider some other restaurants, either same floor with the food court or one level down from there. Below are some photos taken on the restaurants.

Secret Recipe Terminal 21

Farm Design Terminal 21

Bar-B-Q Plaza Terminal 21

Enjoy!!

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