Chatuchak Weekend Market

Sawadeekap,


While I was in Bangkok for the past few weeks, I managed to go to Chatuchak Weekend Market. It is also known as JJ Market in short or Jatuchak Market. You can go to market by taking a BTS (Sukhumvit Line, change at Siam station and take the Mo Chit train) or taking the MRT to Mo Chit station. From there, you just need to walk a bit, you will arrive at the weekend market.


Opened only at weekends, the market is bustling with activities. You can find everything here from cheap clothing, food items, Thailand arts and crafts, souvenir items to aromatherapy products. All things here are cheap and you can also bargain with them as well. Discounts will be given if you buy a larger quantity instead of only one item. It is cheaper than the Sala Daeng Pad Phrong night market as well. The clothes they sell are different than what we get here at KL and some may be odd or rude in nature as well. Be wise in selecting which ones to buy.


The market is covers an area of 27 acres. There are 27 sections in total. Remember to wear comfortable clothing when you decide to go there. The weather can be hot and you may start to sweat when you arrive there. Wearing t-shirts, thinner clothing and shorts are best. You will take a whole day if you want to explore the whole of Chatuchak Market. It is filled with a lot of people, both local and people from other nations. According to the Chatuchak Market website, 30% of the visitors are foreigners.


Here are some pictures taken along Chatuchak area after my visit there. Took from the BTS station. Didn't take much though. Will take more of Chatuchak Weekend Market next time.

To learn more about Chatuchak, please visit the Chatuchak Weekend Market link here.


That's all for now.


Cheers,


Rogerkoo

Singapore Trip

Hi Everyone,

I went to Singapore with my family recently to attend a function. At the same time, my family and I also vacationed in Singapore and spent time visiting Orchard Road and Sentosa Island within 2 days. We arrived at Singapore on Thursday and we only have Thursday and Friday to visit the Singapore places of attractions.

When we arrived in Singapore, we were impressed by the efficiency of the baggage system as the airport. Our baggage were ready for collection immediately after immigration. All the baggage were already there when we walked to the baggage carousel from the immigration counters. We then went to the taxi stand and the Singapore taxis are ready for us. Took the Ssangyong van and arrived safely at Somermet on Grand Cairnhill Residences.

Somerset on Grand Cairnhill Residences located on Cairnhill Road is within walking distance to Orchard Road, the shopping street in Singapore. It is just about 2 minutes to Orchard Road from Somerset. We past The Heeren on the way. The taxi stand is located right in front of Somerset as well. Singapore utilises Korean cars for taxis such as Hyundai Sonata Diesel, Ssangyong and Kia with the exception of Toyota Crown. The taxi drivers are quite friendly as well.

Orchard Road is the shopping street of Singapore. Down the street from Somerset, Takashimaya Departmental Store is on the right.

Takashimaya Departmental Store

Opposite Takashimaya is Paragon, another shopping centre which Metro is one of the tenants.

Paragon

We ate at the Din Tai Fung restaurant there known for its Shanghai Siew Long Bao. It was quite nice. 

Din Tai Fung

Further down the road are Tang Plaza and Ion Orchard. Ion Orchard is the newest shopping centre in Singapore having some of the luxurious brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dolce and Gabbana and Dior. The underground Orchard MRT Station is located at Ion Orchard too. The main tenant of the Tang plaza is of course Tangs. There is also an Isetan branch before Ion Orchard.

More shopping centres are found on the left of Takashimaya. Orchard Central is located opposite the road. There are some fashion brands there too. Opposite Orchard Central is the Centre Point. The main tenants for Centre Point are Robinsons and Cold Storage. John Little, another departmental store is located near Centre Point also.

Orchard Road will be lit up at night. All the Christmas decorations will be lighted up. It is a very beautiful sight. Unfortunately, I did not take the pictures of the colourful Christmas lights at night.

These are some of the brochures that we collected during our trip:

The Official Map of Singapore (Can get it at the Airport or major shopping centres or tourist spots)

Sentosa Island Map and Attractions

We went to Sentosa Island on Friday. We took the MRT from the Orchard Road station to the Harbour Front station to go to Sentosa. From Orchard Road, we need to change trains at Dhoby Ghout station to change to the North East (red colour) MRT line to go to Harbour Front station. From Harbour Front station, we took a Sentosa shuttle bus to go to Sentosa Beach Station where the bus stop is located. All are very convenient. In fact, the ticketing officer at the Orchard MRT station came to check with us if we have bought the tickets. Then at Harbour Front bus stop, another Singaporean man told us where to buy tickets for Sentosa shuttle bus (SGD$3 per person) and where to queue up for the bus. They were very friendly to us. The network map for the MRT and LRT systems in Singapore is at this website, SMRT Website - Network Map.

During the shuttle bus ride to Sentosa, we also passed the Resorts World Sentosa construction site. It is about 70% completed. It has an amusement park as well. Below is the site:

Resorts World Sentosa (Genting Sentosa)

At Sentosa Island, the management provides shuttle bus services to travel along the attractions which include Imbiah Lookout, Siloso Beach, Palawan Beach and Underwater World. Not only does the management provides the shuttle bus service, we can also visit Sentosa Island via the MRT at VivoCity, opposite the Harbour Front MRT station. This is the information about the transport services on how to get around Sentosa Island.

We took the Beach Tram at Beach Station and it brought us along Siloso and Palawan beaches. Along Siloso beach, there are grand restaurants, bars and hotels. At the end of the Siloso beach is where the Underwater World is situated. I have been to Jakarta's Ancol SeaWorld and it is better than Underwater World. There are more attractions at Ancol SeaWorld in Jakarta. In Underwater World, you get to see the different sea creatures such as fishes, jellyfish, sharks and giant octopus. There is also a Dolphin Lagoon but there were no shows on that day. Instead, a sea lion show was being performed. The show lasted only 5 minutes. In Ancol, it lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. There were more tricks performed by the sea lions at the Ancol's SeaWorld. Had lunch at the Kowloon Food Express at Underwater World. A ticket at Underwater World costs SGD$22.90 for adults and SGD$14.60 for children between 3 to 12 years old.

After Underwater World, we took the shuttle bus to Imbiah Lookout. There were a lot of attractions at Imbiah Lookout such as Butterfly Park and Insert Kingdom, Tiger Sky Tower (Observation tower), Images of Singapore (history of Singapore), Sentosa Nature Discovery and The Merlion and Merlion Walk.

  Imbiah Lookout

We only went to look at The Merlion. It has the Singapore's Merlion statue and you can take a lift up there to see the island of Singapore. It costs SGD$8 to go up. We only took several pictures there and off we go home after that.

Tiger Sky Tower

Images of Singapore

The Merlion

We had dinner at Jumbo Seafood at Raffles Boulevard on our first day there. It is situated at the Riverside and near Clarke Quay. We were given aprons to wear when the crabs were served. The food are excellent, different from what we usually get from KL.

Me wearing an apron during crab eating

After our Sentosa trip, we had dinner at Dian Xiao Er. It is a Singaporean restaurant serving authentic Singaporean dishes. The signature dish is the roast duck cooked with 10 herbs. The food serve here is excellent. All tasted great and it is not that expensive. Dian Xiao Er is opening a branch at Mal Taman Anggrek at Jakarta. Perhaps, they can consider opening here in Malaysia. We also ordered Claypot Beancurd with Seafood, Tung Po Yuk, Spare Ribs and several other dishes. I recommend this restaurant to you when you are in Singapore. It is located at 203 / 204, Level 2 Marina Square, next to the Marina Mandarin hotel. It is also opposite the Pan Pacific Hotel.

Dian Xiao Er at Marina Square

That's all.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Jakarta Fair PRJ Kemayoran 2009

Hi Everyone, I have visited to Jakarta Fair 2009 at PRJ Kemayoran. It is held at the Jakarta International Exhibition Centre (JI Expo) every year showcasing Indonesian various industries and products. There were great promotions ranging from sportswear, furniture, clothing, batik clothing, electrical appliances and products, IT and computer products, mobile phones, car tyres and food and beverage items. Singing and dancing performances were held at the event too. The fair is opened to all from morning to night. The MRT in Jakarta also its presence known at the fair. Jakarta will have its own MRT system soon implemented in a few stages. The MRT will be completed in 2016. I also went to the Skyway booth with my friends where we can make our own slippers free. Skyway is a company which makes slippers. There were more than 56,000 pairs of slippers made that day when we were at the booth. Might be more than 60,000 pairs after we left at 7pm. If you are not sure how to make your own pair of slippers, the company models will help you with it. There were a lot of people queuing up there in 6 or 8 lines to wait for their turn. Each line will have a model in front where they will monitor the process of making the slippers. Here is the picture below: I also bought a few cartons of Indomie Mi Goreng at the fair. It was cheaper there. Only Rp. 43000 which means it is only RM 14.33. There were also performances in the E-Joss (Extra Joss) energy drink booth where the musicians created nice drumming beats with kitchen utensils (pans) and empty containers. Several children were invited to join in as well. Loud but good music there. You can visit the Extra Joss website for more details on the energy drink. Only RM 0.36 for one pack. There are 40 packs in one carton. We can see the brands we have in Malaysia also have a presence in Jakarta together with several Indonesian home brands. The Indonesian home brands include Indofood, Extra Joss, Skyway, Bengawan Solo Coffees, Indomilk, Sampoerna and Nixxy. Nixxy is the manufacturer of keropoks there. Familiar brands include Samsung, Sharp, Elba, Fujiflim, Acer, BenQ, HP, Zebra Thailand, Dunkin Donuts, LG and KDK. I have taken quite a number of photos while I was there. You can see it at my Picasa Web Album, Picasa Web Albums - Jakarta Fair PRJ Kemayoran.

Updates from Rogerkoo

Yo, What's up, Everybody? Is everyone in the pink of health? I am fine here and in the pink of health. 

It's been long since I have updated this blog. I was in overseas for the past few weeks.

Tears To Tiara¹, adapted from the video game on PS3 and PC and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood² (the most anticipated anime of the 2009) animes are now shown on Animax. I have watched the first few episodes and excited to follow these animes. These are two of the best animes that I have seen. I also like La Corda Doro Prima Passo and Nodame Cantabile too, both talking about classical music.

I've watched the previous CSI episode where Gil Grissom (William Petersen) told his team he is leaving CSI. What's the reason behind his decision? Is it because of Sara? It seems Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) knows about it. Lawrence Fishburne will join the CSI team later. Grissom has a case last week where the killer has killed a lot of people. The killer was part of a criminal research programme at a university where Lawrence Fishburne is the professor there. At the end of the episode, he told them to find a body at a site somewhere and they found the bones of another person too. Grissom can't leave CSI yet! He'll need to solve this first together with his team members. Find out this Wednesday.

I went to Ancol - Taman Impian at Ancol last week with my friends. We went to Sea World and Gelanggang Samudra. Have a look at the pictures that I took at Picasa Web - Ancol - Taman Impian. Had fun there. Came back around 5 and cooked dinner for some of my friends later. Had a good meal.

On Saturday, I've bought James Patterson's Against Medical Advice and Yvonne Foong: I'm Not Sick, Just a Bit Unwell: Life with Neurofibromatosis. If you have not noticed, my blog linked to her blog. Yvonne is suffering from Neurofibromatosis Type 2, a genetic disorder that makes tumours grow in her brain, spine and along peripheral nerves at 16³. which left here to live in silence. It talks about how she manage to cope with it and won numerous awards including Most Outstanding Youth of the Year 2005 and Her World Young Women Achiever of the Year 2008⁴

Against Medical Advice talks about Cory Friedman, who woke up one day with the uncontrollable urge to shake his head. He has gone through medications for 15 years that had side effects on him. It is a true story. It talks about he manage to fight for his life and survive them with the support of his family and teachers and medical professionals.⁵

The next few good books that I am looking forward to buy this year are The Associate written by John Grisham and James Patterson's Cross Country. I was planning to buy The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson but found that it is under the teen category so I decided not to buy. Is it meant for both adults and teens though? Hehe. Maybe should have bought it. Haha.

Will update again later. 

¹ Wikipedia: Tears to Tiara, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_to_Tiara

²Full Metal Alchemist Official Website, http://www.fullmetalalchemist.com/

³ MPH Online, http://www.mphonline.com/i/charity.jpg ⁴ The Star Online, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/16/nation/3700470&sec=nation ⁵ James Patterson: The Offical Website, Against Medical Advice, http://www.jamespatterson.com/books_againstMedicalAdvice.html

Rogerkoo