PIC OF THE DAY 05/09/2008

Please excuse the reflection in the glass... saw this at a bus stop by Downtown Auckland.

SYLVIA PARK

Just recently had the chance to properly explore Sylvia Park, this new mall not far from my home. Quite impressed with the design and atmosphere at this mall. Especially quite keen to walk around the new Warehouse Extra which sells groceries along with the usual Warehouse products. Here's a few pictures which I managed to snap while exploring this huge mall.

Walkway from the carpark to the mall

The outside

This is the sign that you can see while driving along the motorway

Cute!

The atrium of the mall

Warehouse Extra from the road

Overall it's a nice mall, everything is still shiny & new. Will go back soon to check out their Borders Bookstore!

NO. 1 BBQ RESTAURANT, COMMERCE STREET

I haven't been here for a long time now so it was a good idea when my friends suggested this place. The last time we were here may be a year or so ago, the restaurant was clean and food was delicious. This time is totally opposite of our previous encounter.

The first thing which would come to mind as you enter the restaurant is THE MOST SLIPPERY FLOOR ever! As my friend said, it felt like being in a ice skating ring. I have my sneakers on and it felt like walking on oil! Even the staff there have to be so careful when serving the food. Ridiculous!

The dishes were nothing to shout about. My roast duck and BBQ pork combination on rice was marginally OK. The meat were not hot and duck skin certainly wasn't crispy.

Other below average dishes which we ordered were....

Certainly won't be coming back here in a hurry!

PIC OF THE DAY - 04/07/2008

This the view of Downtown Auckland taken by me last week. As you see in the picture, they are adding a couple more floors to the previous Air New Zealand building. Slightly to the right is the Vero building which is currently Auckland's tallest office tower.

What a beautiful day!

JOLIN SHANGHAI RESTAURANT, DOMINION ROAD

Had dinner here over the weekend. Here are some pictures to show some of their dishes if you've never been there. Could only get a table close to 8pm since they can get really busy most nights. Their service is good, restaurant is clean and food is delicious! Definitely one of my favourite places to dine.

Welcome to Jolin Shanghai Restaurant! As you can see the menu has pictures of the dishes available. Especially useful if you're not too familiar with Shanghai cuisine.

You can see the portion of the dishes are quite large as well.
One of my favourite dishes, the braised pork ribs. The meat is so tender. The sauce is superb to go with a BIG bowl of plain rice.

Another signature dish here must be their xiao long bao. The skin is really thin and soup inside is full of flavour. This is a must-order here.

They have deep fried dishes such as salt & pepper prawns, chicken or pork.

Hungry yet? Go give it a try and tell me what you think of it :)

PIC OF THE DAY - 28/06/2008

This one is for my number one fan who is not in NZ at the moment. So, here's something to remind you of home! Our usual Friday night gatherings at Dorothy's Sister, Ponsonby :)

P/s: Please excuse the ashtray full of cigarette butts behind... don't know where that came from... hahaha.

PIC OF THE DAY 26/06/2008

Snapped this with my new Canon IXUS 80 which I just got yesterday! Was on my way to the bus stop after work when I saw this "bubbles & flame" fountain just outside Downtown Shopping Centre.

HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG?

Wow, looking at the date of my last post, I started asking myself, "Has it been that long, since September last year?"

Anyway, just a little update here and there to keep my blog alive. Hmm... what have I been up to for the last 9 months or so?? Well, there was the Xmas & New Year holidays, I have completed all my examinations (YAY!!!), completed all my practical objectives sign offs (for my qualification YAY!), went on a holiday to Malaysia and Singapore, ate heaps (obviously, and not just on the holiday), started swimming, doing some weights at home, a lot of coffee sessions, movie nights, tvb series nights, gain & loss heaps of weight, reading other people's blogs and of course, work.

Yup, that sort of sums up what I have been up to since my last post :)

BANGKOK - THE FOOD

Ah... this shall be the last part of the Bangkok series. The Food! My taste buds have had such a wonderful treat! Let's have a look what was devoured.

I was really craving for durian and mango with sticky rice. So naturally we had this less than 2 hours after we touched down. YUMMY!!!!!! Look at the yummilicious durian. Isn't it sinful???

At the local coffee shop, we also ordered chicken rice (boneless and so so smooth chicken meat), satay, fried eggs with oyster, rice noodles soup.

At chatuchak weekend market, we had fried quail eggs, fragrant fish cakes, fried pineapple rice, interesting looking fried thai rice noodles and juicy chicken pieces in yam basket, fleshy coconut juice and miniature cute looking burgers.

In the Silom area, Alex brought us to this really nice cafe called Bug & Bee. Didn't know they are so famous until all the reviews from my web search of this cafe. This is a small sample what we ordered as I too busy digging in to take more pics. Hahaha..

Fish cakes with wasabi mayo

Chicken Salad

Hong Kong Fried Rice & Prawns with Crepe Noodles

Crispy Prawns

Chicken with mango

While waiting for our cabaret show to start at the Asia Hotel, of all things, we had mooncakes! hehe.. why not since it's not too long to go before Mooncake Festival. We had a durian flavoured and lotus seed mooncake. Can't say it's the best mooncakes I've had but still a good experience nonetheless, eating mooncake in the hotel bistro with full cutlery! How luxurious!

On the last day, after all $$$ has dried up, we ate at a fast food kinda place at MBK mall called Santa's. Very good value as all the meals are 39 to 49 bahts (approx NZ$2!). Here's one with fried chicken strips, eggs and fried rice. See what I mean?

So this concludes this series of my Bangkok trip:) Of course there are still loads of food which we tried over there but if I were to post all of them, I think Blogger will be overloaded! Hehehe. Look forward to more travels in the near future!!!

BANGKOK - THE PLACES

It was such a whirlwind 4 days, hopefully I could recall the places that we've been to. Here are some highlights:-

1. Boat trip around the Chao Phraya river

The 4 of us had the boat in the picture all to ourselves for 1 and half hours, 400 baht each. Basically it went along the river and we could stop at a few places if we wanted to, such as the crocodile farm. You can actually see how some of the locals live while travelling along the river, passing through the backs of people's homes. You along go pass a few temple along the way, the one which I really wanted to go to was Wat Arun. Somehow we must have missed that stop. The tour ended by the Grand Palace which was our next destination. Though on that day, it was only openning at 2pm and we were suppose to meet the others at 2.30pm. Since we have 2 hours originally planned for the Grand Palace, we opted for tours on tuk tuks around the different temples around that area.

Beware of the very cheap tuk tuk drivers hanging around there as they will take you to souvenir shops and tailors before actually taking you to your destination. Nice experience on the tuk tuks, I guess when you're on one, you just have to trust the driver to be careful of your safety! haha.. Anyway, the guy took us to a few shops and it was quite frustrating since you get wanna get to your destination straight away instead of all these unnecessary stops. They'd get petrol vouchers it seem, if they bring tourists to the shops. Anyway, we told the driver NO MORE SHOPS after the last one, so he brought us to the temple we wanted to go to. Guess what? When we came out, he was gone! Yes, no where to be seen and we haven't even paid him yet! He was supposed to bring us Siam Paragon to meet our friends! Probably made enough from our stops along the way. hahahaha... Here are some pics from a few temples which we went to:

2. The Malls

I am especially impressed with the interior design and the exterior landscaping of the malls. So beautiful!

3. Chatuchak Weekend Market

This place is amazing, so many things to buy, to see, to eat & to experience! You can get anything there, clothes, shoes, homeware, food, etc. My favourite part of the market has to be the pets sections, especially the puppy, kitten & rabbit section. I couldn't believe that so many adorable animals were to put out on display for shoppers to touch and play with. Unlike the ones here, there are no glass panels to separate you and the small animal. You can actually TOUCH them! If not for my eyes, I would have hugged all of them!

4. Calypso Cabaret Show

This show is at Asia Hotel. Really didn't expect such a stylish and elaborate show! 1000 baht well spent for the show (1 1/2 hours) which includes a drink as well. I think this is a must-see show when in Bangkok. I'm sure you will be as impressed as I was!

5. Massage

Of course must go for massage when in Bangkok. I went to Health Land Spa & Massage. The main entrance looks as if it a resort that you're arriving at, very luxurious. I had the aroma therapy massage (850 baht), 1 and a half hours ( I just realised a lot of activities are 1 and a half hours in BKK) and it was so relaxing with private room and shower. Total relaxation with soothing music and oil massage.

Since we're on the topic of relaxation, here's a pic of pool in our hotel, Indra Regent Hotel.

So there you go, the highlights of some of the places which I visited while in Bangkok. Trying to pack so many things into the short 4-5 days is so hard. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful trip and fully enjoyed myself, every minute of it :)