City Of Angels

"Krung Tep" or Bangkok is a vibrant city itself. Perhaps any backpackers in this world would choose it as a base to venture further into it's neighboring country such as Myanmar, Laos,Cambodia,Malaysia & Vietnam. A city which welcomes millions of tourist yearly and generated as much as 500 billion bath from tourism yearly confirmed it's reputation as one of the most visited city in south east Asia.

Bangkok is a shopping heaven, a food heaven and a nightlife heaven even the most hard core clubbers can confirmed this statement! On my most recent visit in the month of march 2009...i realized that the number of tourist is lesser from the past few months. Most noticeably is the half filled survanahbumi airport. A sign of global recession or maybe the aftermath of the recent demonstration by PAD and the siege of bangkok airport for 9 days!

Arrived on Sunday morning by air asia and first destination is the bangkok city suite hotel in soi 1 petchburi road! Meet up with my friends and straight away we head to the infamous jatucak market and well for me that's the biggest sauna in the world and best of all FOC! Spend almost the whole day in jatucak and meet up with my Thai friend for tea time in the evening. She is a pleasant and cute girl anyway...studying in ABAC University in bangna.

Dinner time at crystal grill in baiyoke sky tower in pratunam. located on the 82nd floor and a free entrance to the observation deck and revolving platform at the top floor. All this for a fee of 620 bath approximately RM65. A bottle of average red wine cost 5oo bath and i would say it is worth every bath u paid for it. End the night early for the city tour tomorrow and i'll be the guide for my friends.

The royal palace, wat phra khaew, chao phrya river cruise and wat arun end our relatively simple and tight city tour. A stroll to the MBK for shopping and we get to sample the Mc.Moo burger or better called as Mc.babi! Spend the night late partying around bkk nightlife venue and heading back to kl the next day!



"this creative piece of artwork is located @ Bangkok"



" one of the many local coffee franchise" This brand even has a special collection for converse!



"the lunch in jatujak weekend market was a mixture of Thai & Vietnamese food"



"the famous erawan shrine" hundreds if not thousand of visitors pray here everyday!



"the night view from the revolving deck on the top floor of baiyoke sky hotel"



" As a hardcore Liverpool fans...I always believe that you will never walk alone"

Remarks:- Air Asia now flies 8 times daily to Bangkok, Thailand. Definitely a great city for your weekend escape or perhaps a short holiday away from home!

Fern Forest cafe'

fern forest cafe' is located in a small soi (Singharat Soi 4, Chiang Mai) It is my favorite cafe' whenever I visited Chiang Mai. Perfectly designed and renovated by the husband and wife owner.....this cafe is full of flavor! The place is full of fern just as it is named! The cafe is a perfect place if you need a quiet place to unwind your afternoon, read books or some free net surfing. The freshly brewed coffee are from some of the best coffee beans harvested from the owner's coffee plantation located in Doi saket. The cakes & pies are made daily by the lady boss and her staff! I can guarantee you the freshness of everything here! You get what you pay for and you will miss this place once you are back home! My personal favorites is the " cafe dam" ( long black), Strawberry cake, Black forest cake & warm apple pie. As a hardcore coffee avid.....I always hunt for a good cafe whenever I am traveling...and fern forest cafe' is definitely one of my 'A' list cafe' " A Must Visit cafe' in Chiang Mai" (the cafe open around 8 in the morning until late evening)



" Whoever that love coffee and cakes, this is the place to be!" Thanks to khun "Yai" the owner of this lovely cafe & sweet home of his!



" khun "Yai" and his beloved wife home" How I wish I have something like this.....???



" peaceful & perfectly set up"



" Just find a seat and start ordering"



"I just love this cafe' so much that I come here daily enjoying the fresh air, fresh coffee and fresh cake!"



" he he he say hi to the hippo"



" great sandwich to kick start the day"



" A slice of heavenly made apple pie"



" definitely one of the best strawberry cake I've ever ate"

Remarks:- The number 1 cafe in my heart for the best overall cafe in Chiang Mai.

Trans Indochina 2010 #Update 1

After some lengthy discussion with 2 of my friends, we decided that we shall do an Indochina backpacker's trip in February 2010. After some initial suggestion and brain storming sessions, we decided the countries and the cities which we want to cover during our trip. We will begin our Trans Indochina trip 2010 in the city of Ho Chin Minh in Southern Vietnam- Phom Penh & Siem Reap in Cambodia-Vientiane & Luang Prabang in laos- Bangkok & Chiang Mai in Thailand as our ending point.We shall cover these countries and cities in 12 days. Research for the trip is on going and we hope to finalize everything by the end of the year. I have read those blogs about how crazy is was to take a boat trip from huay xai to luang prabang and a 14 hours bus journey with chickens from huay xai to luang prabang. However we are determine to do it at least once in our life! We are not doing this all the time....so perhaps Indochina will be a good choice for first timer like us! we travel alot but obviously not in backpacker's style! We have to forget about the luxury in this trip and do it all in backpacker's style! Even in the time of global recession we believe traveling in Asia is still very much affordable especially with Air Asia...truly Malaysian!

"The Trans Indochina will cover approximately 2500km of land journey covering 4 countries and 7 major cities all in 288 hours"

# Update 1 (25/5/2009):- One of my ex-school mate and buddy(Mr.KCH) will or might or maybe join us on this trans Indochina 2010. Anyway I am hoping that he will be able to join us on this trip maybe or perhaps once in a lifetime!! I hope by now the trip logo will be ready....thanks to kelvin our chief designer. Anyway it is still a good 37 weeks to go! guys the countdown timer is up there! so let's countdown to our big day:- 11/2/2009!