Posts filed under 'Reviews'
i havent written a movie review in ages, but i really want to share my thoughts and discuss this fantastic movie that i recently watched. it’s called The Dark Knight :)
The Dark Knight is without a question the most anticipated movie of the summer. i was excited about this movie for a number of reasons – one, Batman is my favorite superhero of all time. two, Christopher Nolan is at the helm. three, star-studded cast with many of my favorite actors (did NOT expect Aaron Eckhart to be in the show. what a yummy bonus!!!). four, i loved Batman Begins, and that’s coming from someone who thought the old Batman movies were legendary. five, my favorite Gotham villain is in it – The Joker :)
and after watching it, i’m pretty convinced that The Dark Knight is my favorite movie of this year. here are some things i loved about it :
1. BATMAN’S INVENTORY
what is a Batman movie without the mind-blowing gadgets that make you go PHWOAARRRR! i love how in times of danger, when you’re wondering just how the hell Batman’s gonna make it out of THIS one alive, he whips out some fawesome gadget/machine/toy at the veryyy last second, and kicks major villain butt with it while looking like a million bucks. the sheer creativity and the evolution behind his gadgets are just intelligent to the point of being obnoxious, and TDK did not disappoint in this aspect. some seriously kick-ass inventions are unveiled in this movie, with the grand prize going to the Batpod and this flabbergasting new invention that he uses to locate a person. my heart aches with the fact that such cool things only exist in Gotham City.
the Tumber
2. CAST
i love the fact that they brought Christian Bale back as Batman. to be honest, i think he was a little bit overshadowed by the technology and grandeur of this movie, but i still think that he is one of the best actors we have out there. i thought he was a good fit for Batman / Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, and i still think so now after watching TDK. George Clooney was always a tad too charming for Batman, and while Val Kilmer made a good Batman, he wasn’t a good Bruce in my humble opinion. Christian Bale, though not perfect, comes closest to striking the alter ego balance as seen so far.
Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Comm Gordon (Gary Oldman)
Gary Oldman as Comm Gordon is perfect and no one will ever change my mind about that!!! Morgan Freeman didnt shine as much as he did in BB, but did a great job with the little screentime he had. Michael Caine was fantastic as Alfred the butler, delivering each line with crisp wit and sardonic grace as is the classic Alfred hallmark, always providing humor.
i really hated Katie Holmes in BB, so i was glad to see that she was replaced… yet i was still a little bit dubious about Maggie Gyllenhaal playing Rachel Dawes; i didn’t think she had the spunk it takes to be The Superhero’s Love Interest. (Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale, Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane in that Superman series on tv all those years back, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy – now that’s spunk!) Maggie Gyllenhaal fell a little bit flat for me, but i think she did the most that she could with her role. she kicked more butt than Katie Holmes, that’s for sure… but i would have loved to see Rachel Weisz or maybe even Rachel McAdams playing Rachel Dawes. (eh why do they all have the same first name!!!)
Aaron Eckhart was an absolute gem in TDK. i didnt know he was going to be in the movie until i read a newspaper interview a couple of months ago about his role in the new Batman movie. the news shocked me, but i was very very happy. and i thought he was brilliant in his role :) emotional, believable, and a character who could be identified and empathized with.
hehehehe Edison Chen!
3. HEATH LEDGER AS THE JOKER
but of course :) hasn’t Heath Ledger come such a long way? i remember the very first time i saw him – a greasy and carefree teenager dancing across bleachers in ‘10 Things I Hate About You’. then i saw him again in A Knight’s Tale, and never again after that. i never watched Casanova or Brokeback Mountain, so in a way i’ve never actually seen Heath Ledger’s transformation as an actor.
but holy shit, his performance in The Dark Knight was just. something else. altogether.
he was psychotic, hysterical, cuckoo, a madman. everytime he licked his lips, i felt like i wanted to crawl back into my own stomach in disgust. he perfected the Joker laugh, and gave the Joker a whole new crazy voice never heard before. i loved how he put all these little nuances into the character – the lip-licking, the wild hand gesticulation, the half-giggle half-snort, the eye-rolling. it was all just so haphazard and all-over-the-place, which is exactly what the Joker’s persona is.
now a lot of people are saying that Heath Ledger put Jack Nicholson’s Joker to shame. i’m not sure what that means, but i’m inclined to think that they are playing two very different Jokers. i watched the movie with Nicholson’s Joker many times when i was a kid, and believe you me, there was nothing more frightening in my little life back then than Chucky (of Child’s Play) and The Joker as played by Jack Nicholson. Nicholson’s Joker made my blood run cold at the mere sight of him, his polished and doll-like make-up was just freaky, and he exuded the most sinister and cruel aura.
Jack Nicholson as the Joker in 1989
i am actually more frightened by Jack Nicholson than i am by Heath Ledger. but that doesnt mean Heath Ledger’s performance was any less brilliant than Jack Nicholson’s all those years back. where Jack Nicholson’s Joker personified ‘creepy’ and ‘frightening’, Heath Ledger’s Joker was something else altogether. he was unpredictable, childlike, had some kind of ADD thing going on, insane… but above all, a genius. he was a mastermind, and that was manifested in his deliciously cunning plans where there just seemed to be no outwitting the Joker. Nicholson was cruel but boring; Heath Ledger was cruel AND intriguing. and that’s where i think Heath Ledger has the upper hand as the Joker.
my favorite parts of the Joker in TDK were the parts where a remotely human part of him surfaced. without spoiling it for those who haven’t watched, you can see this in the parts where he flippantly says how he got his scars and the part where he goes “Hit Me!”. it was a most brilliant transition; in a matter of seconds, he goes from being kooky and drunkard to businesslike and dangerous. yet at all times, the Joker is always in control. demented, but still in control. you fear him, but you’re also disgusted and dumbfounded at the caricature that is his existence.
i wholeheartedly support the petition to give Heath Ledger his Oscar :)
4. THE ‘CITY’
i’m not going to say which City, but there is a City, and it was brought out so beautifully in the movie that i wanted to cry. i’ve seen this City many times, but NEVER the way it was presented in TDK. this is a real City in our world, colorful and vibrant… but successfully made to look like Gotham. sigh. the buildings. the skyline. that road. that escalator. SIGH!
5. PLOT, SCREENPLAY & STORY
who agrees that the one-liners in this movie absolutely kick ass? “Why so serious?”, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain,” “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical… some men just want to watch the world burn,” “The night is darkest just before dawn”.
the words in TDK are top-notch. little wisdoms and teachings here and there. and i love the entire irony of the TDK story. well written, well plotted. an excellent superhero movie that keeps us all at the edge of our seats, littered with impressive conflicts and jaw-dropping surprises, fantastic pace and breathtaking action scenes that never leaves us bored, bundles and bundles of creativity thorough yet succinct exploration of ideas and themes … all seamlessly tied together by the Nolan brothers.
6. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
this is going to be short. i just want to say how i love the fact that they gave the audience some history and insight on the Joker, and allowed us to connect with him and try to understand for ourselves why he turned out the way he did. i also love how they made Batman human, how they gave him insecurities, emotions and showed us the rash and reckless side of Batman that is almost NEVER seen in his cool and calm character. i really enjoyed the movie because of this. i often walk out of Superman shows feeling like i never really got to know the man, but the people behind Batman and Spiderman usually do a very good job of character development. The Dark Knight is practically a breakthrough in this field.
okay no more :) i want to say a big THANK YOU to Nokia and David Lian for the invite to the TDK premiere :)
psssst did you know that Batman uses Nokia in TDK? hahahaha. David says that it’s the new touch-screen model that is to be released late this year. finally, something Bruce Wayne owns that i can own too :P
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it’s Martian’s birthday today :) well, technically it was over 3 hours ago, but he gets to have a 2-day birthday this year cos he’s special like that. we went out for dinner at Il Lido in Sentosa today, where he made me cry (again) but we have since patched things up (again) and now love each other more than ever. i swear i have to one day blog about all the times we fight and make up; it will make such a funny story!
he’s having a birthday party tomorrow, which i spent a good chunk of the past few months trying to put together, but let’s just say he is a very difficult client and i now want to slit my wrists from all the stress. sigh. aiyah dont know lah. i’m just glad it’s going to be lots of fun tomorrow. it’s an Inner Child party, hehe, and many of his friends from KL, Singapore and HK will be here. plus i ordered a reaaaaaaally bigggggggg Awfully Chocolate cake….. :D
guess what i got him for his birthday! i regret it immensely. he now spends more time with it than he does with me, and it’s been only 24 hours since i gave it to him. sigh. what have i done!
okay okay goodnight! i gotta go finish this really big card that i’m making for his bday. pictures soon!
and just so it’s on my blog, happy birthday baby :) i love you. pleeeease eat some cake tomorrow, it’s very nice wan….
July 19th, 2008
last month, i was approached for an advertorial by this brand that i really, really like and is one of the first places i turn to whenever i need to buy gifts for my friends and family.
when they emailed me to ask for my advertorial rate, i replied by giving them both my direct rate and also my agent rate which is priced higher. one would expect that the brand will choose to hire me direct instead of paying the agent fees, but oddly, they wrote me another email asking for my agent’s contact. i was very surprised and sincerely thought that they had misunderstood how the advertorial rate system works, but i later learned from a friend (who knows the brand representative who contacted me) that the reason they decided to pay a higher rate was because … including my agent in this deal was the right thing to do, and they didn’t want to cause any tension between my agent and i.
needless to say, i was completely shocked and couldn’t believe that such a nice client existed, even more so because these are representatives of a really big brand. later on, i went for a meeting with two of the brand reps Charlene and Jessica, where they showed me their products and told me some of their company background. i have never seen anyone more knowledgeable and sensitive to their product than them; they both seemed to have such funny or touching stories to tell about every item i pointed at.
but let me tell you what my favorite part of the meeting was. there was a point when Charlene was sharing with me some very touching stories about her customers, and halfway through one particularly moving story, she started tearing. i was very taken aback, but it was a very pleasantly surprising moment :) i realized then that this was the exact sort of sentiment that the brand represents – sharing, caring, warmth and coming back in contact with what makes us human: emotions.
and the brand? we all know it. it’s Hallmark :)
i spent the longest time thinking about how I could write this piece in order to do justice to the brand and the awesome clients (that’s the meeting I was talking about here), but I just couldn’t think of anything good enough. so i’m gonna stick to the most simple and straightforward way – take pictures of the stuff that Hallmark has, then show you folks :) hopefully this helps anyone out there who’s stuck in a bit of a gift-giving rut!
#1 this is Waimin and the cow piggy bank she picked up when i asked her what she would choose if she could have anything in the shop! i SO knew she was going to choose that. she’s a total cow freak, you see
#2 Jovann and the toy penguin he chose. the reason is because all of us call him Penguin. heehee don’t you think he looks like a penguin!!!
#3 and this is what Aira picked :P for her and her boyfriendddddd!
#4 super adorable zebra plushies! the largest costs RM 199.90 and the smallest is RM 29.90. i had an ex boyfriend (dowan to say which one!) who gave me the sheep version of these zebras – four of them from big to small! it was one of my favorite gifts :)
#5 one of the impossibly cute Me To You teddies that Hallmark stocks. the Me To You bear is honestly the cutest bear i have ever seen, and has been my favorite bear for a long time. i often buy small versions of it to give out as birthday gifts
#6 and these are the trademark Forever Friends teddies! i have this friend Annjoe who’s a super Forever Friends bear freak. on one of her birthdays, we all chipped in to buy her a REALLY BIG Forever Friends bear! then we went to her house one day and saw that she had damn a lot of really big Forever Friends bears anyway……..
#7 this COULD be the bear that we gave Annjoe, but I’m not sure. and the picture doesn’t even do justice to the size of the bear; in real life it is half or maybe even three quarters of my size!!!!!! y’know… I’ve always really wanted a bear that’s like half my size… cos very cute … *BIG HINT TO MARTIAN!!!!*
#8 this is a set of photo albums for a wedding. can someone please get married soon so i have an excuse to give this photo album set as a wedding gift :D
#9 a pregnancy journal! i flipped through it and all the pages have headers for different stages of pregnancy. it would be so cool to document a pregnancy like this for memory’s sake… but when i have a baby, i’d probably choose to start a pregnancy blog instead :P cos lazy to write with pen. hehe.
#10 gifts for babies and baby showers :) my favorite things in this shelf are those little toy snails! well actually they’re not toys – i am told that they are bezel boxes meant to store the baby’s first curl!
#11 i dedicate this shy Milo Dog to Tamtim because it is a milo dog and Tamtim knows how cool milo dogs are :D
#12 there! there! these are the aforementioned sheep that i got from aforementioned ex boyfriend! only mine didn’t have pink flowers in their wool and were on all fours instead of on their butts. haih mine are cuter anyway.
#13 an awesome family tree ornament that i wish i’d found out the price of! i’d buy this and fill it up with pictures of my family and give it to my aunt in Pennsylvania, so that she could have a piece of home with her :) my dad has a smaller version of this on his office desk with a photo of me in my Barbie doll phase… hahaha one day i must take a picture of it and show you guys.
#14 this is specially for all the people who emailed me asking about the scrapbook i made for Martian! Hallmark has a range of several scrapbooks that are made of excellent materials (the one in the photo has a linen/cotton cover) and have six different kinds of pages like single pocket or dual pocket for photos, blank scrapbook pages with protective sleeves or lined matte pages. they go for RM 130, which is a lot cheaper than the scrapbook i bought from Hong Kong. haih.
#15 and this is a REALLY BIG leather-cover scrapbook. Martian would love this i think, but it would take me a whole year to fill the entire book up, so i’m going to stick to the smaller ones, thank you :P this one goes for RM 234
#16 looking at this little ornament sends a little wave of calm through me. haha i don’t know why. at least it works. now i know what to buy for Stewie and my dad for Christmas. RM 32, this one.
#17 and now I know what to get for Fireangel, Suanie and Eyeris!
#18 and um… what to get for myself. hehehe.
#19 i really, really like this. this is an important message that i think a lot of us need to be reminded of sometimes… =)
#20 from the card section! i dedicate this card to all the people out there in the world who have alco-lovin’ friends!
#21 this would make a sweet and simple birthday gift :) even better if accompanied with a box of real cupcakes!
#22 absolutely hilarious thing, this one – it plays Darth Vader’s theme song when you press the button! :P Charlene said that a woman came into the shop and bought this for her office… so that when the evil boss comes down the corridor, they can all alert the office by pressing this button. hahaha damn funny
#23 And my dad’s birthday is coming up next month, so …
#24 … I’m getting him this card!!!! ^_____^
i spent some time browsing through the cards section of Hallmark, and honestly, I think that’s where the magic of the brand lies. we’ve all come to a stage where we’re too busy to give out birthday cards or cards for any event, choosing instead to send a quick text or email, and we’ve all forgotten how exciting it is to rip open an envelope to read a cute, warm or funny message in a card from someone we love :)
i am a huge fan of cards; i love receiving them, but i love giving them even more. even so, the only person i give cards to these days is Martian. i remember how i used to look forward to writing looooong ass messages in birthday cards to anyone at all, and how i always had a stack of blank cards that diminished very quickly because I so often gave out random cards to friends and family who looked like they needed a happy card that day… but nowadays i don’t even buy cards anymore. sigh. i didnt even realize that i’d fallen out of the habit of sending cards. i’ve also forgotten how good it feels to sign off on a very cheong hei but fuzzy-messaged card, or getting birthday cards in the mail from friends overseas because even that rarely happens anymore. JOHANNY if you are reading this, please send me a card soon!!! i’ve missed your cards :(
i’m really glad that Hallmark approached me for this advertorial, because without that meeting, i wouldn’t have realized just how far i’ve fallen out of touch with card-giving and just how fun it is finding THE perfect gift for my friends and family. so i’m very grateful to have been given this opportunity :) advertorial writing has never felt this good.
one last thing: the first 50 readers of this very cute blog called quaintly.net who go to the Hallmark outlet (in Gardens Mid Valley) and say the password – “The Original Very Cute Bear” will get a free Forever Friends Membership Card with a preloaded value of 30 points! you can use these 30 points to redeem whatever Forever Friends merchandise you want :) hehe I’m going to use mine to buy a bear to teman Egg McMuffin.
so I hope you guys enjoyed reading this advertorial and maybe even found a good gift to give a loved one through this post. i had a lot of fun writing it :)
Hallmark
Lot 225, Lower Ground
The Gardens, Mid Valley
Phone Num: 03-22848323
July 7th, 2008
i asked to try a flavor and he gave it to me. then i asked for another. and another. rum & raisin, walnut butterscotch, rocky road on little plastic spoons. then finally, i lingered on chocolate ecstasy, and stopped there. double scoop in a waffle cone with chopped almonds, please. a quick exchange and then there is bliss in my hand. i dont hesitate. what is it about ice cream? the creamy texture? the cold sweetness? the surprise ingredients? that sticky first bite?
i have a million ice cream moments; they dot my life like stars. there was the time i went on a dessert fast and azlan bribed me out of it with ice cream. the day i turned 18 with a candle in a cup of ice cream at the stroke of midnight. and i will always remember how good it feels to lean on the wire fences near the school field with my friends, chattering away in kidspeak, while trying to make our lime and vanilla popsicles from the ice cream man last longer. remember this post long ago about a person who fed me ice cream so perfectly? did you know that it was about Martian? that post was written on his birthday. we had been together only and exactly 2 weeks when i wrote it.
sometimes when Martian and i fight, and i descend into one of my epic sulks, he tries to bribe his way back into my good graces with ice cream. it’s terrible how this tactic always works. TERRIBLE. the man can do no wrong as long as he puts his arm around my shoulders and says, ‘come baby, don’t sulk. i take you for ice cream ok? a nice double scoop cone of Chocolate Ecstasy and Cookies n Cream, ok?’ sigh. sometimes it’s not just about the ice cream; it’s about how he knows exactly what i like, and how he puts these things in my hands to make me smile again. but er, a lot of the time it’s also about the ice cream.
i came home tonight agitated – door slammin’, fight pickin’, blood boilin’. all i wanted to do was forget the reason why i was angry because it is about something that i have spent way too much time being angry about, and it is also something that i cannot change. feeling helpless, i could do nothing but sit on the couch and quietly partake in the pint of ice cream Martian bought for me when we had that big fight at Gardens the other day. chocolate fudge brownie :) a whole pint and 90 minutes of mindless chick flick (Bring It On 4!) later, i felt infinitely better. i felt refreshed, satiated, kinder. the secret, i have realized, lies in simple pleasures. like ice cream and lunchtime naps. who cares about anything else when you have in your hands what makes you happy?
and so tonight i am happy. happier. contented. because of life, ice cream and simple pleasures.
i stocked up! NZN has this 30% discount on all take-away pints on the 30th of each month, and that makes me very very very happy indeedy. simple pleasures, remember? discounts are one of them :) and now that fuel prices have gone up again in Malaysia, it looks like i will be embracing a long future of hermitage and never again using any expensive fuel to go anywhere – all that i need is in my freezer, here in my home. and now that electricity tariffs are rising too, i guess i will just have to eat my ice cream in the dark.
June 5th, 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. according to the hotel staff, 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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