Posts filed under 'Photos'
this is a photo post from the Nuffnang Wild Live Blogging Party that was just over! only the first part though, cos there were just way too many cool costumes to take pictures of throughout the night :)
the party was a smashing success! as i previously mentioned, the party concept is blogging live from the event using those nifty pocket-size USB modems and computers set up at the venue, with a wildlife/animal dress code! it was held at Modesto’s + Rain in Desa Sri Hartamas and saw some 200 guests attending. great games, great costumes, great food (seriously), great party activities like animal face painting and polaroids for the guests, but most of all… great company :)
20 photos first! i’m currently using my super awesome Nokia N82 (a pinkpau n00b review shall follow when i get the hang of this phone) to go online, so i can’t put up too many pics. another batch of 20 photos coming up soon!
#1 the moment i walked into the venue, i saw THE COWS!!! haha their udders are so hilarious; everyone kept pulling on them the whole night. i asked Nicholas (second from left) where his udders were, and he just gave me that infamous grin of his and pointed to the hole in the crotch area of his costume -_-
#2 and this is me with them cows. i partied till the cows came home!!!!! giggle.
#3 this is when the party started and they were calling for the first kind of each animal to rush up and hug the emcee. and because there were so many of the same kinda animals, there’d always be a whole bunch of people pushing their way to the front to give Liang a big bear hug! hehe these are the rabbits
#4 and these are the leopards!
#5 THE ELEPHANTS!!! Shad on the right made his costume and used a rolled up towel as his trunk! the awesomeness! i have a picture with him in my 2nd batch of pics that shows what his poster says :D very funny wan
#6 the bees! HAVE YOU GUYS WATCHED BEE MOVIE!!! it is so the best animated movie.
#7 despite all my initial hooha about going as a peacock, i ended up sticking with my ladybug outfit instead. haha look, i brought my home with me - a big leaf :D big thanks to Gin for lending me her ladybug cap!
#8 Vivien and i! we went to primary and secondary school together
#9 and this is Lie Peh, also a primary & secondary schoolmate. she’s a make up artist now, and she has got some SKILLS!
#10 us very cute former Nuffnang interns aka the Nuffiepuffs! this is such a hot photo of Michbaby (first from right)!
#11 and this is our ex-boss, Stewie. haih. dont you think he is so sexually unattractive!!!!!!111
#12 this is my favorite photo of the night :) this is me with the Nuffies hired for the night - Germaine, Veron, Ginny (who was told to cover up hahahaha you’re lucky if you managed to take a picture with her in her initial costume!!!) and Jess.
#13 me with Adeline, the super cute 1st runner-up for Malaysian Dreamgirl! my favorite Dreamgirl moment will ALWAYS be Adeline’s “higher than mountain, deeper than ocean” quote… :D
#14 and this is Hanis, the 2nd runner-up for Dreamgirl! she came as a moth! her dress was really, really pretty
#15 me and Kenny who came as … Winnie the Pooh… hahahahaha
#16 the very hot Michbaby!!! Tangbaby, her bf, came as Shrek!
#17 Skyler, the most ranty person i know :D
#18 Jen, one of the few zebras that night
#19 this is Suet Li who came as an ostrich! aren’t her eyelashes nice? hahaha when i saw her that night, i was really surprised she bought such expensive-looking falsies for the night, because she doesnt like to waste money wan, and so i asked her how much hers was. and then she went, “OH! i just cut feathers from my ostrich costume and glued them on!!!” haha sigh! only you, liew suet li!
#20 and this is Kevin who came as a mixed cat. he was so drunk, he had to be hoisted out by his friends. hahahhaa. sigh he and i go way back. one day i must tell you guys the story of how we met.
okay okay okay i gotta go now. my friends are waiting for me. if i stay here blogging any longer, we’re all going to miss the ferry to Pulau Perhentian. yesssss a beach getaway with the besties :D i so cannot wait!!! okay byeeee
June 23rd, 2008
paws up, all you party animals that will be feasting and frolicking at the Wild Live Blogging Party held by Nuffnang this 21st of June! :D
i am really excited because not only is this a party, but it is also a blogger’s party, and it is also a Nuffnang blogger’s party, and it’s also a COSTUME Nuffnang blogger’s party!!! it just doesnt get any better than that, what with the menu coming from Modesto’s (oh, the al funghi pizza!!) and the party’s concept being quite unique - the folks at Maxis Broadband will be sponsoring several units of their USB broadband modem as well setting up computers at the venue for bloggers to blog live. plus there’s a jungle theme! wildlife, wild live blogging… geddit? :D
i dont know if you guys have been reading the news about the Wild Live party, but like our recent Pajama Party, we all have to come in costumes for this one too! animal costumes, to be exact :) i’m still quite unsure of what to wear, and i know i’m not alone in this dilemma cos animal costumes arent easy to find or cheap to rent.
but lucky for me i have a few tricks up my sleeve. haha ;) and even though i REALLY REALLY want the Dell XPS M1330 prize laptop that will be given to the best dressed male and female that night, i just thought i’d share a little bit about what i plan to wear to the party and also how i put the costumes together. hopefully this imparting of knowledge will assist you confused bloggers out there with your own costumes! so, dont let my non-kiasuness be in vain ah.
1. LEOPARD COSTUME
okay, everyone has a leopard print something or other in their closet - be it a scarf, skirt, shirt, batik blouse, whatever. i actually have a leopard print slip that was the first thing i thought about wearing, but i cant seem to find it even after spending a whole half hour sifting through my wardrobe. and the other leopard print items i have are all random separate pieces, are not even of the same color, and don’t look good when mixed n matched. le sigh. soooo here’s what i did :
tada!
what i did for this Leopard costume was go out to Kamdar and buy one meter of leopard print cloth and … tie it around my chest :D so simple, yes? and all it cost me was RM 12.90. you can get leopard print cloth from most textile shops, but i went to Kamdar cos cloth’s cheap there and i’ve bought leopard cloth there before for many high school projects. there is a Kamdar outlet in Mid Valley, but the one i went to was at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, which is like cloth and crafts central. there are loads of textile shops in that area, and if you poke around you may be able to find tiger, zebra or giraffe print cloth in the nearby shops. i heart Jalan TAR!!
i accessorized by adding leopard ears which i bought from Teddy’s Tales a long time ago at RM 12.90, and drawing whiskers on my face. you can also turn the cloth into a proper slip-on dress by doing some cutting and sewing, but i was lazy so all i did was tie a knot, and ta-da, instant leopard costume :P
2. LADYBUG COSTUME
hahahaha isn’t that so unconventional! when i first thought of going to the party as a leopard, i realized soon enough that it was probably going to be the most common costume that night, simply because everyone probably has a leopard print SOMETHING hidden away in their closets. so i tried to think of something more unique, and i thought of .. a ladybug!
when i was at Kamdar, i picked up one meter of red Habutie silk for RM 3.80. even cheaper costume than the leopard one!!! the plan was to go home and cut circles out of black-coloured paper and stick them onto the cloth, but i was lazy so what i did was photoshop black circles onto the cape. hahaha. dont hate me lah! if i end up wearing the ladybug costume to the party, i *WILL* draw and stick the black coloured paper circles onto my costume, okay!
so i picked out a red skirt and a red tube top from my closet, paired it with a pair of black patent leather booties, and tied on my new ladybug cape. voila, instant ladybug! all i needed were some feelers, so i MS Painted some on. yay for improvisation :P
3. CAT COSTUME
i have this pair of white cat ears that i bought from Pottinger St in Hong Kong for about RM 9. i KNEW i would one day have a use for it, and that day is now! this was the simplest costume - all i had to do was throw on a white dress and put on the ears!
i accessorized by tying some red velvet ribbon to my neck for a makeshift collar. my thigh-high white stockings would have looked really nice with this outfit, but i left them in singapore :( so this knee-high red and white ones will have to do. i also drew some whiskers and some light cat-eye makeup, and put some pink lipstick on my nose for a more cat-like sniffer :P
this costume was practically built around the cat ears. without those ears, this costume is pretty meaningless. so if you guys dont have any animal ears, what you can do is go out and buy a plastic headband, then draw and cut out cardboard or paper ears of any animal, and tape it to your headband! mouse, cat, leopard, rabbit… it’s all possible. and you dont even have to spend money buying expensive animals ears or renting costumes!
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so there you have it - three costumes that i put together for the Nuffnang Wild Live Blogging party. they were cheap and easy, so dont you guys give me any excuses for not dressing up, okay? :P actually, it seems that any clothing item with an animal on it will gain you entry.. so if the only thing you have is a pair of Paul Frank pajamas with that monkey print on it, by all means wear that to the party. but dont be lazy lahhhhh okay! dress up nicely! give me a good challenge for that Dell laptop!!! it’s no fun winning it if no one else put up a good fight :\
okay with all that said! please do help me choose a costume for the party! which should i wear - the leopard, ladybug or cat? (edit: i added a poll on the right side!)
June 8th, 2008
i know two Martians. there is the crabby Martian who is all impatience and angst, and then there is the Martian who gropes around the bed in the middle of the night to find my hand and hold it tightly to his chest. the first Martian can be either amusing or maddening, depending on the situation, and the second Martian doesn’t let go of my hand even if i try to squirm away to get some blood flow back into my arm.
i couldnt show you or tell you all about Martian even if i tried. there’s just so many things to say and so many experiences to delve into; i could fill up a hundred scrapbooks with every laugh, every fight, every conversation, every emotion that we call ours, and i still would not have captured the essence of the person that Martian truly is. some days i wake up and i think i know him inside out, but i love him most when he catches me off-guard and surprises me with a side of him i’ve never known. like the other day, when he made me walk in the rain (i hate walking in the rain) and i was extremely pissed off throughout the whole walk home. plus my new suede shoes were all wet from the puddles. when we arrived home, my mother called, and i was on the phone with her for a while, glad for the reprieve from Martian because i was so angry at his inconsideration. when the conversation ended, i went into the kitchen, and saw Martian drying my shoes and my bag with paper. i felt so small.
i went around the apartment today taking pictures of many Martiany things. i thought i’d put up some of the pictures to share with you guys a little slice of my boyfriend’s life :)
#1 paintings he bought during our Hanoi trip
#2 a little trolley on the shoe cabinet, where he keeps his wallet and other loose change. the wheels move!
#3 he bought me the pink dinosaur from Vivo one day simply cos i said i liked it. and i bought him the duck from Bugis when he was still living in Hong Kong. it used to stay on top of his stereo. note the jacket on the right! every time we go out for a movie, Martian likes to annoy me by asking ‘do you think the cinema will be cold?’ and then when i say yes, he will say ‘oh it looks like i will have to take my jacket’. i have no idea why he insists on doing this. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
#4 my flats and his loafers and a little bit of my toes. he got that wooden box so that he had somewhere to sit when tying his shoelaces -_____-
#5 these are studio pictures with his friends from HK - Adrian, Raymond and Kaz
#6 these are the Pooch salt & pepper shakers that i got him from my last trip to Bangkok. we were fighting and it was a sort of I’m Sorry gift. it was either the shakers or this really large bronze bell that he would have liked more, but i was too lazy to carry it around. behind Salt & Pepper is a card he left me this morning before he went to work =)
#7 his really messy shelves to match my own really messy shelves back home. sigh. a man after my own heart!
#8 his bedtime reading ever since we got here. Next by Michael Crichton (j0n this is the book i was telling you about!), Tash Aw’s Harmony Silk Factory, New Malaysian Essays by various local personalities (SO GOOD!) and …. the Genotype Diet -____- yes it’s that bloodtype diet thing. haih.
#9 SOME of his shirts. there’s more in the other room. what did i say?! a man after my own heart!!!
#10 ties! rolling up the ties and putting them in these little compartments was my favourite task when we moved into this singapore apartment. oh and those are my earrings! shit i always wondered where i put them
#11 his extremely awesome bookcase that i SO WISH I HAD. i think it is more ME than it is him! right? right? do you think i should make him give it to me?
#12 one page of the scrapbook i made him for our first anniversary. it was divided by cities - and this one is in the Hong Kong section. hehe see the Bank of China! and the junk boat!
#13 really messy coffee table. this is after cleaning. random things from the table that i can see from here - Tatler’s Guide to Singapore best restaurants, AA batteries, a Stabilo highligher, a wedding invitation, boxes of souvenirs from our Kunming trip, a pen that has not been capped, tickets to Radio & Juliet tomorrow, lots of random papers
#14 his really gross flax seed crackers (WTF?! is this even food?!) and my Pods. PODS!!! Snickers flavor! no contest which one deserves more attention.
#15 sticker photos taken at Bugis Junction and random passport photos we needed for our china visa.
#16 the Dell printer/scanner/fax machine thingy that Martian so loved when he bought it. i think he was scanning documents rabidly for a month
#17 bathroom counter. when i come to Singapore, all i need to take with me are my glasses and my passport, cos all my toiletries are already here. best!
#18 random candles in the bathroom. these came from his HK bathroom. i once pointed at them and laughed at their randomness, then he said it was his attempt at serious interior design. -_-
#19 OMG THE FRIDGE… okay let me describe the contents. the freshest thing in there is the box of Awfully Chocolate cake at the top shelf, and that’s two weeks old. two cans of diet coke - one three months old, the other 5 months. MOONCAKE FROM RAFFLES HOTEL. MOONCAKE. MOONCAKE FESTIVAL WAS IN SEPTEMBER. mcvities biscuits from about 7 months ago. chicken biscuits from Pangkor Laut which was 6 months ago. rolled-up Doritos at the bottom shelf… who the heck puts Doritos in the fridge…. and those Doritos were bought when we moved in..
#20 my junk food pantry!! i say mine because he doesnt buy any junk food.. and even tries to impose an embargo on my junk food buying. the only thing in there that’s not mine is that white pack of Tyrells organic lightly salted carrot chips whatever. carrot chips?? wtf…
#21 plates we never use
#22 Tyson sitting among the dvds. he used to sit in between Salt & Pepper but they ostracized him for his color
#23 photos on the bookcase. i gave him the wooden one for Valentine’s Day in 2007, and the bottom frame as part of his birthday gift in 2006. that photo was taken in Penang.. haha what a trip. i remember so clearly how i felt when i wrote that post.
#24 the wooden duck i got him for Christmas last year, and our very cute plastic plant that flops its leaves! i bought it because every house needs a plant :D
#25 his tempur pillows. i hate. he loves.
#26 me and Pink Giraffe. Martian and i had a very big fight over him the other day. if you can guess what it’s about, i’ll give you one buck. sieutheng you cannot play
#27 our newest DVDs. we spent all day yesterday watching the first season of Entourage… seriously… besides playing Spot The Star, why do people even like this show. P.S I Love You had me crying like an idiot. sigh.
#28 dont tell Martian i jumped on his couch :P
June 2nd, 2008
okay, this is the post on the cute hotel i stayed at in Bangkok! i’ve been getting so many emails asking about this hotel after i mentioned it in the Chatuchak post, and now i’m feeling quite regretful that i didn’t take pictures of the hotel properly. haih! but i will try my very best to do justice to the cuteness of this hotel, ok? :P
Reflections is a place that would typically be classified under boutique hotels, but i think a better term for it is ‘art inn’. converted from a few shophouses into one of the coolest travel accommodations i’ve ever stayed in, Reflections resembles an inn more than it does a hotel because of its size, layout, amenities and location. with its lobby doors opening right out onto the streets of Pradiphat, Bangkok, it is distinguishable from its neighbouring pharmacies and grocery stores only by the bright turquoise colors of its walls.
i thought it was a little strange to find such a striking boutique hotel/inn nestled amongst these common and drab shophouses, but i later realized how much it added to the overall charm of the place. your balcony opens up to life in the midst of non-tourist Bangkok, and you cant help but feel extremely welcome and at ease in a place that is so genuine and down-to-earth.
Reflections has only 30 rooms, and the reason why i think it should be called an art inn is that each and every one of its 30 rooms has a theme and design unique to itself. no two rooms in Reflections are alike, and they are all conceptualized and designed by different artists. isn’t that so cool! eeyang and i had a lot of fun browsing through their website and picking out which rooms we wanted.
here are pictures of the rooms we stayed in!:
ROOM 409
Price: 1850 baht /night (RM 185)
#1 this is Eeyang’s room - Room 409. the theme here is positive energy-meets-nature. the room is actually not as warmly-lit as the pictures imply, and it can get a bit gloomy in here because the lighting isn’t very powerful, but overall it’s clean, simple and very spacious.
#2 we had a good giggle looking at the shower, because it opens right into the bedroom, and there’s no door to the bathroom/toilet space :P this room was quite uninteresting to us because there really wasn’t much relevance to the theme, and nothing quirky to poke at :( the other rooms, as you shall soon see, are less spartan and have a lot of very interesting touches.
#3 eeyang posing on the bed. isnt that stool with the phone so cute! oh and the notepads in this hotel are pads of multi-coloured post its :D
ROOM 203
Price: 2250 baht /night (RM 225)
#4 this is the door leading into Room 203, which was my room, and located on the ground floor of the block next door (Reflections takes up two blocks of shoplots), and they’re separated by a small walkway compound. we were SO lucky that someone canceled their booking and we could get this room upon check-in, because it was one of our first choices :D
#5 this room is huuuge and very cheerful! after the gloom and barrenness of Room 409, i was glad to come into this homey and cozy room. aptly, this room is themed ‘Wish You Were Here’ and has tones of nostalgia and old charm.
#6 this is the bathroom of Room 203. the wooden part is where the shower area is. i like! bigger bathroom than the previous room, although also separated by curtains and not a lockable door.
#7 the artist of this room really knew how to bring out the theme of nostalgia. lots of interesting old-school toys and dolls to poke around with in this room. i really liked it in here :)
ROOM 202
Price: 2250 baht /night (RM 225)
#8 Room 202 is an EXTREMELY CUTE room!! it’s the room next to mine, and when we came back from breakfast, the housekeeps were in there cleaning up, so we asked if we could go in to take a look. i was so enamoured by the little details of this room that i forgot to take a shot of the whole room :( but you can click here to see what it looks like
#9 this is a sink right in front of the bed, where you can use those paints and brushes and paint onto that mural next to the sink. damn nice right! it was very cool seeing all the arty additions by all the people who’ve stayed in this room before and left behind a little bit of themselves on the mural :)
#10 this is the clothesrack. haha two big birds!
#11 the mirror that’s been painted on, too. check out the lockers behind me that serve as drawers!
#12 this is the sofa-bed. eeyang and i originally wanted this room for the sofa bed because we could have saved on the double room costs :( but oh well. such is thy fate if thy booketh thy hotel room only 4 days before trip!
GENERAL OPINION ON ROOMS:
i really prefer the latter two rooms to the first; the extra RM 40 really makes all the difference. all rooms in Reflections have free wifi access (an extremely strong deciding factor for me when choosing hotel rooms!!!) but the rooms in the second block get stronger connectivity. we couldnt get connectivity in Room 409 at all, which was another reason why i didnt like that room.
note that ALL rooms in Reflections have double beds; there are no single or twin bed rooms. this posed quite a problem on this trip, hence we had to book 2 rooms and spend a lot of money. haih. so this is a hotel best for couples or friends who don’t mind sharing the same bed. there are some rooms with sofa beds though, and i think there is one room that actually has a single bed next to the double bed. OR, you can do what we realized WAY too late we could do, which is purchase one of those extra beds for 500 baht (RM 50) per night and have it wheeled into your room :) *tries not to grumble at amount of money that could have been saved*
besides 202 and 203, our other first choices were Room 303 and Room 402.
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#13 our room keys!
#14 stairs leading up to the rooms in the first block. every wall and corner of the entire hotel has some form of art splashed on it.
#15 the broadband-enabled computers in the lobby. thai broadband is faaaaaaaast. there are also lots of books and bangkok travel guidebooks next to the computers. you can borrow the books :)
#16 this is the hotel cafe, where you have your free ala carte breakfast. like the rest of the hotel, it is extremely cute and happy, and has a lot of quirky artistic touches :)
#17 … like this curtain made out of neckties! eeyang and i were goggling at the creativity of this. though it would look much nicer if there were more neckties on the bar!
#18 .. and this super cool chair with little toys glued all over it :) it’s so creative and comfy that i wanted to bring it back home with me T____T
#19 funny drawings like this one are placed where the overhead menu boards usually are
#20 sofas in the cafe for you to read or just chill
#21 eeyang and i with the big teddy bear in the very small hotel lobby. on our last day, both the couch and the bear were gone, because they are apparently the props for the newest room redesign
#22 the extensive DVD library in the lobby!!! you can take any of them back to the room because each room has a DVD player!!! did you know that i found Singing In The Rain and The Seven Year Itch in their collection!!! oh my god!!! but we ended up getting Romeo + Juliet but fell asleep watching it :(
#23 adjacent to the hotel lobby is a space where the hotel owners sell original-design bags and notebooks and clothes and stationery and lots of other stuff. i never managed to ask the hotel staff who designed these things, nor did i get to buy anything :(
#24 CDs at the shop space
#25 clothes and art for sale
#26 very cute notebooks that i wanted to buy back as souvenirs!!! but our ride to the airport came so early :(
#27 funky bags for sale. see the luggage bags behind, in the display window? I WANTED ONE SO BADLY. why did the cab have to come so soon!
okay no more pictures. lemme just give a quick summary of the main facets of a hotel stay :
Rooms: absolutely creative and so much fun to stay in, very clean and comfortable, wifi-enabled, double beds only (but you can purchase additional beds), bathrooms have no door, good beds and pillows, nice towels and bathrobes. room in the first block can be gloomy. book early because there are so little rooms in this place! Rating : 4/5.
Service: top notch. it is a small establishment run by a small handful of people, and each and every one of them were very kind, polite and hospitable. eeyang found a smoke buddy in one of them :P they are extremely helpful, especially with directions, and they don’t hesitate at all to go out and hail a cab with you to tell your cabbie where to go (many cabbies cant speak English). 5/5.
Price & Booking: all rooms go by 4 rates - A) 1850 baht, B) 2250 baht, C) 2950 baht, D) 3450 baht. these prices are just right for boutique hotels. but of course this is Bangkok, and you can find cheaper hotels anywhere in the city, but none as unique, comfy and cool as Reflections :) bookings can only be made via their website and phoning in.
Amenities: no pool or gym, though this was no problem for me as i never use either when traveling. there is a hotel cafe with ala carte breakfast, open 24 hours with room service delivery. hotel shop selling those bags and stuff. hotel is wifi-enabled (though some rooms have very weak connectivity; check with concierge prior to booking). two broadband-enabled desktops at lobby. dvd library and a dvd player + tv in every room. air conditioner and hot water in all rooms.
Location: Reflections is located in Pradiphat, which is a 10-15 minute taxi ride to the city center (Sukhumvit, Silom and all) if traffic is good, and that costs about 50 - 70 baht (RM 5 - 7). it’s a 10 baht (RM 1) tuk-tuk ride or a 8-minute walk to the nearest Skytrain station, which is the Saphan Khwai station. in Bangkok, any hotel that’s near the Skytrain = GOOD; very convenient to get around. Reflections is also extremely near the Chatuchak Weekend Market (hehe!) and it costs about 30 baht to get there via tuk-tuk. it is very easy to get taxis from the hotel, and the hotel staff will help you with this. ALSO, there are lots of money changers here - on the same road as Reflections - that give very good rates. change your money here, trust me :D
thus ends my happy review of Reflections Rooms in Bangkok :) it is a lovely, kitsch, quaint place that i’m so glad to have discovered. yes, i would definitely recommend this hotel, and it is definitely where i will stay from now on whenever i go to Bangkok.
feel free to ask me questions if you have any :) charge you i will not, obviously, but if you would like to offer me a Clarinase pill, it would be very welcome. the last of my Clarinase stock was confiscated at the Freedom rave :( runny-nosed and feverish i am now. sigh!
May 13th, 2008
today i’m going to blog about the best - and also my favourite - place to shop in the whole wide world : the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok :)
no trip to Bangkok is complete without a visit to the huge and famous weekend market that houses a vast labyrinth of shops and stalls selling just about anything a shopper could ask for. some 20,000 shops are tucked away haphazardly in this market, separated into 26 different sections according to their 9 categories of wares - books & collectibles, plants & gardening, home utensils & decor, pets and animals, antiques, clothing and accessories, handicrafts, furniture and miscellaneous; somewhat systematic but still thrillingly chaotic.
not only does Chatuchak have the most mind-boggling variety of products for sale, but everything is also CHEAP like nothing you’ve ever seen before!!! so cheap that every weekend in Bangkok, resellers and business owners from all over the world descend onto Chatuchak to stock up wholesale on super-cheap clothes, furniture, accessories and jewelry to bring back to their shops to re-sell for triple the price. (read: Bangsar and Hartamas boutiques ;) the rest of us holidaying shoppers can also share the joy of finding bargains in every nook and corner of the market. dangly earrings for RM 1 per pair? little wooden stools for RM 3? sundresses and original artist-designed tshirts for RM 15? a whole box of beautiful glass jars for RM 8? only in Chatuchak :)
upon touchdown in Bangkok, eeyang came to ask me : “so where do you wanna go first?” and i instantly screamed “CHATUCHAK!!!!” please, as if he even needed to ask. sigh i seriously believe that my birthplace is actually Chatuchak. there is no other place on earth in which i feel more at home and ALIVE :D and so we spent the first 4 hours of our time in Bangkok trawling Chatuchak and scavenging for the best buys. we emerged happy! very very tired and sweaty but happy.
pictures! :
#1 little bags and clutches going for 59 baht (RM 5.9) and 100 baht (RM 10)
#2 this is a shop selling art materials; there is a whole area in Chatuchak just for handicraft stuff. i go CRAZY buying materials everytime i’m here! sieutheng, ginny and vvens, you guys would love it too. ink pens, marker pens, all kinds of paper, string, ribbon, buttons and all kinds of craft items for super cheap!
#3 bundles of tissue paper for so cheap. i remember how when we were doing that Valentines’ Day roses project back in Form 5, and i was so happy to find tissue for RM 30/bundle at SSF in Jalan TAR. here in Chatuchak it’s RM 10, without bargaining yet. sigh!
#4 adorable puppies for sale :) there was a REALLY cute pure-breed pomeranian that cost only RM 200!!! wtfish! in KL it would probably sell for RM 1,600.
#5 this is my attempt at taking a The Dog picture, hehe. it’s a quasi-milo dog!! :D
#6 handmade postcards that i bought for RM 2 each after bargaining. i was so attracted to them because the postcards featured a lot of teddy bears that i actually have! see that monkey, and that Tigger and Piglet? i have them too! the photos in the postcards were taken by the shopowner’s sister - she’d take all her soft toys along with her and drive around the rural areas of Thailand to do her photoshoots, then make cards out of her photos. so creative! i bought a whole bunch back to use as birthday cards :)
#7 earrings for RM 1 a pair. i bought a dozen :D hello!!! it’s RM 1!!!
#8 this shop color-coded all their earrings. the girl in the photo is Malaysian too, and she kept going, “aiyo die lah how could i have spent so much money buying all those earrings from The Curve when it’s so cheap here!!”. i totally know how she felt because i kept seeing at Chatuchak all these dresses that i bought from Bangsar.. but at one third the price i paid :(
#9 happy mugs!
#10 happy clips!
#11 lots of little shops like these that sell pretty clothes. even though they’re quite cheap, the problem is you cant try the clothes on. unless the shop happens to have a makeshift dressing-room; usually just a pinned up cloth. works, nevertheless! the blue dress i’m wearing in the McDonalds video is from Chatuchak - cost only RM 10! i bought the same dress in pink too.
#12 haha this is eeyang eating some chocolate donut thing. he’s wearing my heart necklace -___- he just came into my room, picked it up and threw it around his neck. i didnt even realize he was wearing it until i took this picture. even then, he didnt want to give it back -_____- haih sometimes i worry about him.
#13 REALLY PRETTY FLIP FLOPS FOR ONLY RM 5!!!! it’s not even the strawy/beachy type of flip flops that are so native to Thailand. sigh. i was so smitten i bought 3 pairs. that’s my finger pointing at a pink pair that i bought. i wanted the orange one at the upper left corner but no size :(
#14 eeyang thought i had to have this shirt because i am actually a cat ^___^ i should have bought the piggy one at the back because i am also a pig :| the shirts here are slightly more expensive (RM 20) cos they’re original designs.
#15 handwoven Moccasin-type shoes! so cuuute. but one rainy day and it’ll be all ruined :|
#16 me and the best drink that Thailand has to offer - the orange juice! they use these oranges that are very very much like mandarin oranges, and the drink is just so mind-numbingly good. SIGH. i miss!
#17 we bumped into Jack Sparrow hahahaha
#18 bags! but after trawling all of Chatuchak, i didnt find any that i really really liked :\
#19 this shop looks like it belongs in a mall, doesnt it? Chatuchak has loads of these. very quirkily-designed shops with quality products.
#20 so cool, right? a bag made out of an empty rice sack
#21 pouches and pencil cases for RM 9.90. i bought that colorful one underneath the sign, and also a red faux croc skin case for my make-up. contentment!
#22 gorgeous tribal-design earrings! RM 8 per pair, also original designs. no other shop in Chatuchak had these earrings.
there are soooooooo many more things quaint items in Chatuchak that i didn’t take pictures of, and also that i wish i bought :( eeyang and i went back to Chatuchak again the following day because we felt we just HAD to buy more stuff. haha. my biggest regret was not buying this beautiful oil painting from this artist who had a most unique and dreamlike style. but it cost RM 150, and i didnt have enough cash on me :\ by the time i got more cash, i couldnt find her shop again.
which brings me to …
PINKPAU’S TIPS FOR CHATUCHAK MARKET!
1. if you see something you like, buy it right away. don’t even think of walking around to compare prices and then coming back, because chances are you won’t be able to find the shop again. that’s how big and messy Chatuchak is
2. if you MUST move away from a shop but want to come back, ask them for a business card or the section and soi (street .. or in this case alley) of their shop. most merchants in the market will know how to direct you back to your intended shop just by looking at the section & soi.
3. dont stray too far from your friends!! it can be a REAL pain in the butt to locate each other again, even if you have phones. if you are in a big group and it’s just impossible to shop together, designate a place to meet-up again at a certain time. one good spot to do this is the Clock Tower. there are buggies in the open-air areas that will ferry you around for free, but you must ask them to take you to your intended spot.
4. wear comfortable shoes. i’d suggest something like flip flops, which are comfy but also easy to remove in case you want to try on or shop for shoes
5. dress lightly and appropriately for the hot sticky weather, and also for lots of shoulder-rubbing and body-grazing; the Chatuchak crowd is not to be underestimated :P
6. try not to use the bathrooms if you can help it. the bathrooms are few, overly crowded, dirty and faaaar away.
7. yes you can bargain at most shops!
8. have fun exploring Chatuchak!!! here, only the fittest will survive and emerge victorious :P
oh, chatuchak. oh, cheap shopping. oh, wonderful smorgasbord of hodgepodge and bric-a-brac. my heart longs for you so! hey if anyone wants certain kinds of things from Chatuchak, lemme know :) i may be going back there sometime in June or July, so can help you folks buy.
i’m going to write about my hotel in Bangkok in the next post. oh it is the CUTEST hotel you will ever lay eyes on, and i’m so excited to write about it!! :D
May 7th, 2008
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