NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - First Day in Bangkok

It started out as a planned solo trip, visiting my friend while I was there, but we also have some common friends, I decided to ask out of politeness whether they would like to join too. One of them decided to join, and so it became a girls trip to Bangkok! But I made it clear that no matter what, I have to achieve my bucket list while I was on this trip, and that was to visit Ayutthaya and the Grand Palace.  I also asked my Thai friend if she wanted to go anywhere for a short trip outside of Bangkok, and she picked Hua Hin by train! The advantage of not working, is that we are free to travel anywhere anytime! And so, I booked the cheapest flight from Penang to Bangkok, and it was surprisingly not Air Asia! I actually took  Firefly, on a morning early 925am flight!

And above is part of the reason (aside from the price of course), free snacks! Yes, although it's a budget airline, they provide snacks on your flight! And the other best part was, they gave 10kg check-in luggage free, on top of the 7kg carry on. That was more than enough for me! Later when I came back did I realise that Firefly is owned by MAS..... (nervous laughter). I've only ever took MAS once in my life before. Their track record isn't actually great is it? But Firefly gets a 5 star from me! Super value for money!

I met my other girlfriend in Bangkok Airport itself. She flew in from Singapore. Our Thai friend was meeting us there to bring us to town. Since the shuttle bus to the bus terminal would be a 1hour wait, we decided to have lunch first. Burger King was not my first pick, but.... it has bacon! 

Our first stop was to my friend's house to say "Hi" to her parents, and also to Pad Pad, or Pad Khao (Fried Rice), her pet rabbit. After saying our greetings and handing over our gift, we drove to the nearest BigC Supermarket for some shopping, and then to a seafood buffet at Mungkorn.

We arrived around 5pm for dinner. It cost around 500baht a person, around 18gd? Super value for money. There were insane amount and varieties of seafood on the menu for your picking!

Me and my Thai friend super love prawns, so that was what we mainly ate. I do not know why I always find it hard to buy prawns from the market because of the price, but whenever I go to a buffet and there are prawns there, I would just eat it non-stop. I also love that they had bamboo clams! I love those too! Basically I just stuffed myself with these two ingredients.

They have a table just for raw seafood, thai styled too! And I really wanted to try them, but I had a 4 hour train ride the next day and didn't want to risk it. I would definitely want to come back here again and try them one day! They looked absolutely mouth watering!

After stuffing myself silly with the bbq seafood, I did managed to try a plate of thai food. I love the thai curry with noodles, and the bbq corn was super delicious! It saves me the trouble of finding the corn from the night market and paying separately to try them. I'm quite a sucker for corns. 

I also tried a bowl of durian penget with sticky rice. It was nice because they put a lot of sugar in it. 

After dinner, and dropping most of our luggage at someone else's home, we finally checked into our hotel around 8pm. The hotel was near Terminal21 riverside, but we never did got a chance to visit it cause we were only staying one night, and leaving early next morning to catch our train. 

The hotel was beautiful with old elegance. Everything was super huge here, with multiple storeys at the main lobby. It was almost a pity that we were only staying a night. It was quite cheap though, around 60sgd a night. I was sharing it with my friend, so it was only 30sgd a night per person. Totally within my budget for such a luxury stay!

The room was large and spacious!

And so was the bathroom! It had a bath that I didn't manage to use. I started to wonder why I've been staying in so many hotels with bath  recently but not having the time to really enjoy them? Travelling with people is always so rush! Perhaps I should plan a slow trip for myself, to the land of onsen? Or just pray that I get to enjoy at least two nights of onsen in my upcoming trip to Hiroshima :)

The view from our room, night scene of Chao Phraya River. We actually went down to the garden by the river and spend the night chatting before heading up to wash up and sleep. It was a nice chat up with my friend one-on-one. Although we did went on a trip to South Korea in April, we didn't really talked much as we were in a group and my husband was also with me. In this trip, we were going to be stuck together :P

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - SG > PG by SQ

 

Gees, did I not do a transit in Singapore for this trip? From the photos, it looked like I spend some time in Singapore! Lol. Above is a photo from East Coast Park. 

I also managed to grab my favourite economy fried beehoon while I was back. I don't know why, but I'm pretty addicted to this dish in Tampinese. Singapore doesn't really have very nice food as compared to Penang, but there are certain dishes that I love and miss. I try to eat them whenever I am back now. I even made a list for it! And it includes food that I can't get in Penang like MOS Burger, or Mr Donuts!

Back in Changi Airport Lounge. Guess I'm not hungry any more even though this would probably be my last time in an airport lounge. I sometimes wonder if I will ever get the chance again. I remember the very first time I took a Business Class flight. It was from Hanoi to Singapore, and I redeemed it using my krisflyer points cause I just wanted to experience luxury just one time in my life. I never imagined that I would ever get to fly business class on a business trip before until I joint Daimler! Lol. Hope interesting how my life has turned out.

When I got back, I started my Scrapbooking! Yes, I still do that. And I love it.

Some of the interesting I brought back with  me. Komeda Red Bean Paste! For the Nagoya style Ogura Toast breakfast! Now I can have it at home too!

Here's my breakfast set! Sadly, that paste was gone too soon! It was surprisingly nice to eat!

I also go this canele mix from one of the baking shop. It cost maybe just 2sgd? I love canele, so I thought I'll give it a try. I even got the mold and all.

I air-fried mine instead of baking.  But luckily they turned out ok!

I kept them in my new No-Face boxes.

I can't remember if I got the above cloth from Nagoya, but I did started sewing when I got home!

Here's a cute coin pouch I made, just to keep my coins in. I love this!

I also made an origami bag from the 3sgd a meter cloth I got. Love both my sewing product! I should really made more, but my life is surprisingly busy even thought I'm no longer working!

Lastly, I would like to say Bye Bye to my Elite Gold. I am grateful to get the chance to experience all that it had to offered me while I was qualified. I hope one day I can still qualify for it, but I think it would be unlikely..... Oh well, I had fun while it lasted. Thank you for the memories :)

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - JP > SG by SQ

I got up early the next morning to check out. I need to be at the airport by at least 8am. It took almost an hour to get there as I needed to transfer train along the way. When I stepped out of my hotel, there were actually drunk youngsters still sleeping on the road side! That's the real Japan for you! I've seen weirder things. I've seen a drunk salary man put his face on a moving train in Tokyo once! Lol. And I've also seen one of my Japanese boss pretty drunk on one of our night out for dinner during a business trip. 

Anyway, I got to the airport safely and in a timely manner. I took a photo of the ninja decoration around the airport. It says that Nagoya is the city of ninjas! I read about some ninja towns that I could have visited but didn't. There are so many places that I could have visited, but I guess those would have to wait for the next trip....

Airport lounge access was still valid for me, my second last using my Krisflyer Gold membership. Sadly, it was a Plaza Premium lounge.... Which means the food wasn't going to be great.....

I was kinda right. There wasn't much on offer for breakfast. The only egg I could get was an onsen egg. There wasn't any western option available, and the only fibre I could find was apples. I just grab a quick snack and headed to the gate.

Luckily SQ provided a better lunch menu on the flight back! It was almost delicious! 

And to my surprise, there was even ice cream! I love you SQ. Thank you for improving after covid! If I could, I would always fly SQ. 

While I was back in Singapore (transit), I managed to went down town to have dinner with my ex-colleagues and team mates. For some reason, I really love the braised chicken in cabbage at JiaXiang. It's a very homely dish. I went for the dinner because I thought one of my colleague was leaving, and so this would be a farewell for him. But he never did leave. I think he is still there -________-  What a waste of my effort. Lol. 

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Nagoya Archives

 

After visiting the castle, I saw on the map that Nagoya Archives was nearby, and on the direction I am headed back to the hotel. Since it is a free entrance attraction, I decided to head it there. Above is what it looked like from the front view. Unfortunately, I came from the side of the building, and was actually questioning whether I was at the right place as it looked kinda run down.

But I found the courage to walked up to the main door and stepped in. It was an old building. There was hardly anyone there. But it was so beautiful! It was those grand old building of the past. I love wandering into such buildings. They always felt so spacious and cold and solid. Slightly haunting, but in a romantic way. This was no different. The beautiful grand stairs leading upstairs, with all the stained glass decoration blew my breath away.

It even has a stained glass ceiling! I read that many Japanese likes to come here for their wedding photos. I can see why! 

This is a view taken from the top of the stairs looking down and back to the main entrance. Not a single person around. Sometimes I wonder why I always end up in such beautiful places, but with no one around to admire them. Surely this would make a wonderful place to visit? Instead of LegoLand which can be found in more than one place in the world? Lol. Maybe it's just me who thinks like that. I think I have an old soul.

There are some galleries upstairs. One was a court layout. Apparently this building used to be a court house. So they have redo a room to reflect the history of the place. Love that everything is wood. There is a similar beautiful place in Singapore, it's call the National Gallery. You can find similar wooden layout of a court setting there too. National Gallery is also another wonderful place where I am always discovering something new every time I stepped into the building. 

At the exhibition hall, I found many retro prints and poster of old Nagoya. I love stuff like these! Leaving some here for your viewing pleasure.

Lastly, a photo of me. I think this is my last photo of a place I visit in Nagoya. I was leaving early next morning. But I'm so glad I stopped by this place before I leave. There was a coffee cafe at the ground floor, at the back of the building. It looked like a cosy place for a drink, but I didn't went in cause it was kind of an intimate place where the owner probably come and chat with you. The drinks were proper cafe priced too. As it was my last day, I was tired too, and didn't want to burn my brains out trying to have a last conversation in Japanese. So I just walked pass it 2 or 3 times before deciding to leave, lol. Bye bye Nagoya! Thank you for taking such good care of me! I hope to be back one day in future. I think, this is the only city in Japan that I have spend the most time in, and on my own too! It almost felt like home by the end of my 2 weeks there! It was an unforgettable experience that I will never forget! 

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Nagoya Castle Treasure House

 

One of the most fascinating thing I saw on this visit to Nagoya Castle, was the wooden treasure house that was opened to public. It is located before the castle, just as you enter the royal grounds. From the outside, it doesn't really looked that impressive. It looks more like a simple tea house. It is a place where the emperor receive visitors. 

Here is a courtyard view of the place. I tried to go into the back room of the house, but a Japanese guy told me that they are filming inside, and told me to go in from the front instead. At the entrance, you are required to watch a video on what you can and cannot go inside the treasure house. After that, you are lead to a lobby where you have to take off your shoes before entering the house. 

But once inside, it was just amazing! It was like stepping into a musical box! Everything was made of wood, and the decorating just reminded me of a musical box, made in Japan of course. The number of people allowed inside are limited, so it wasn't crowded inside. I can see why. Everything here was made of wood, and the doors are made of paper. Can you imagine the damage? It was an extremely delicate place. And it opens up to rooms after rooms of beautiful art. 

What can I say? It's just very elegant to be inside such a beautiful place. And the weird thing was, all the room was empty. The beauty lies in the door, the walls, the ceilings. The details of the art painted on them was amazing.

The gold theme seems to be reflected in the whole place. And I can see why. It shines when the sunlight hits it. As per the photo above, the tiger and the gold background of the wall illuminates the whole room! And it was just early afternoon when I was inside.

Almost every room is gold, and painted with natural scenes. The room was spacious. And if they were not big enough, the sliding doors can be opened up to make it into a bigger room. It was such a flexible concept, such a dynamic design and layout.

The corridors too are beautiful, even a simple one like this above. There's just something about wood.

On the hallways, the beans holding up the building is also decorated elegantly, here with crane and cloud. 

Some of the corridor have windows like these to let in the air and for ventilation. The light illumination makes the place shine. 

Above is just a door. Look at the detailed design on it. So much effort has been put into it. Fit for a king indeed. I don't know, I actually prefer these simplicity than the elaborated design of the western royal dwellings. Simple is just so much more sophisticated, so much more classier and, it says so much without saying anything at all. Does that make sense?

Here is a heavily decorated room, with the ceilings all filled with art pieces in each square.

Here's me! You know how some people think that if you've seen one, you've seen it all? I try not to have that thought when I visit any place. I have visited many castles in Japan, and I still drag myself here. I am glad I was not disappointed. At a glance, everything may look similar, but every single castle I visited has it's own unique point, it's unique memory, forever a part of me. From the very first Hiroshima Castle, to the latest Nagoya Castle, they are all unique in their own ways.