Biz trip to BKK

Yeah, was in BKK for 5 days middle of last month. There was a HoReCa show there, which we participated in. Quite tiring, but fun. The Princess of Thailand visited the show too. Pity we weren't allowed to take pics of her :-(

During those 5 days, I didn't have a lot of time to shop around. Only 1 or 2 hrs to dash out to buy something before my boss buzzed me on my phone asking me where I was, and get ready to meet up. But I was treated, as always, to really fantastic dinners.

Stayed at the Novotel Lotus Hotel. It was conveniently located on Soi 33 along Sukhumvit Road. The BTS was 5 mins walk away, and there were small shops, food outlets like Subway, and cafes, along the main Sukhumvit Road itself.

View from my room

There's also a pool on the 9th flr if I looked down from my room window

Well-stocked mini-bar

The quiet corridor outside my room on the 24th flr

Lotus pond at the hotel lobby. So nice!

After I checked in, took a shower and sort of settled down, I went out for a short walk around. There were so many mobile food stalls (or illegal hawkers) just outside of the hotel, peddling all sorts of food. The aroma was very tempting, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to risk getting sick on my first day there. I was just starting to get hungry when Charlie rang and said to meet up at the hotel lobby for a "welcome drink" before we headed out to dinner. How timely...

Dinner was at L' Opera, on Soi 39. But Charlie forgot the address and as we hopped into a taxi, he told the taxi driver Soi 29. and we went around looking for the restaurant. Got very lost there (which was really very funny), and had to call up a customer to ask where it was! Hahaha. Ended up, it was Soi 39, not 29, and Charlie remarked humorously he missed by 10 Soi! Hahahaha....

L' Opera is an Italian restaurant. Ambience was rustic, dim lights, and it looked very warm and cosy. We were warmly welcomed and seated in a nice little corner. Charlie asked for the chef, whom he knew and was familiar with. Chef recommended a few dishes and some nice wine.

A beautiful assorted platter - Parma Ham, Spanish Ham, Special Sausages, Salami etc.

Pickled vegetables to go with the ham

Charlie's Mozzarella Cheese Salad

My Traditional Italian Funghi Soup (Mushroom Soup)

We also had a small serving of Risotto to share (I forgot to take a pic of it cos I was too hungry, and it looked too delicious to wait!). Then came the entree. I had an Angus steak with Foie Gras (oooohhhh), and Charlie ordered a Turbot.

My Angus Steak, medium rare, topped with Foie Gras & mushroom sauce

Charlie's Turbot

And of course we had beautiful wine (Red & Dry) to compliment the dinner

Dinner was really good. But we finished quite late. Went back to my hotel room after that to check my emails, and an early sleep. Had to prepare to visit customers and set up the show booth the next day...

Next morning, Charlie sent me a message, to meet at the hotel lobby at 11am, with Rachel (our intern who was posted to BKK for market research). So I woke up early, went to walk around, have some breakfast outside and see if I was lucky enough to do some shopping.

Almost all the shops were still closed, so I ventured further and tried some food along the roadside stalls. Half the time I was very afraid I would fall sick, hehehe....

As it was almost 11am, I headed back to the hotel slowly, and was probably 25 steps from the hotel when Charlie SMSed again to say change of plans, to meet up around 3pm instead. But I went back to the hotel anyhow, checked my emails, settled some work and then decided to take the BTS to MBK for a quick walk around.

Managed to walk (very quickly) thru Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon, Siam Centre and MBK. Picked up a birthday present for Prince A, and a pair of shoes for myself before Charlie SMSed asking where I was and I had to rush back to the hotel already.

Went back, showered and dressed ready to meet but got another SMS from Charlie saying another hour delay! Grrrrrr....... Ended up checking my emails again and napping another 20 mins.

Anyway, we did meet up with Rachel and make our way to the exhibition hall very late that evening. Most of the booth was already set up, and we just had to fill in the products to display.

Some products we put on display. There were lots more, but the pics didn't turn out nice enough to post here! Hahaha...

Of course in between we walked around the halls and saw the other booths set up as well. Some very massive, some were tiny and boring.

Nostalgic

This was on display at one of the booths. So cute!

That evening, we were all hot and sticky (cos they didn't turn on the air conditioning in the halls) and smelt like fish. Charlie suggested we grabbed a cab and headed back to Sukhumvit area for dinner. And behold! We got stuck in the infamous BKK traffic jam!!! Up on the highway, for approx 45 mins, almost complete standstill. We were very tired, and super hungry. I was contemplating abandoning the taxi and walking the rest of the way down, and Charlie & Rachel was also getting impatient and starting to curse. But of course with 3 ppl in the cab, conversation did make the stuck in the jam easier to bear.

As soon as we got off the highway and into the familiar city, we got stuck in another jam. This time, we just told the taxi driver to drop us off around the corner, 1 BTS station away from our hotel and we crossed the road into a seafood restaurant I spotted. Sat ourselves down and ordered dinner.

I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was something seafood market! There was a little "market" in the back of the restaurant, with tanks and tanks of live seafood. Similar to the ones in China. Charlie and Rachel went to pick our dinner from there.

All those live seafood waiting to be eaten by me...
Muahahaha!

There was a cultural dance going on while we were waiting for our food

A live oyster prepared and eaten, Thai-style

It was still swimming 5 mins ago... Now it's on my dinner plate!

And yes, Royalties like me eat vegetables too...

Steamed Red Grouper

(It was also still swimming happily when Charlie decided to serve it to the hungry princess)

Ditto to the swimming crabs, oops!

Next day was the start of the exhibition. Rise and shine at 5am, showered, changed and ready in the lobby by 6am. I figured that we didn't want to waste time fighting with the taxi drivers with my limited ability to speak Thai on where we wanted to go, so I got one of the front office ladies at the hotel to write the name of the exhibition hall in Thai script. Was very handy when we showed the taxi driver. Hehehe, so smart of me!!!


The Princess of Thailand was there to grace the official opening. Then in the afternoon, the crowd started coming in. And boy we were busy. Rachel, Charlie & me were on our feet most of the time. Tired, but fun.

Cute Mascots & Pretty Thai girls were everywhere at the exhibition

Hungry crowd at the booth waiting to sample delicious smoked salmon

A trout put up for auction, starting @ 500BHT, increasing by 100BHT each call

Dinner that evening was even more interesting than the first 2 days. We were actually very very tired, and after the exhibition ended at abt 6.30pm, plus the 1.5 hrs traffic jam back to the hotel, we just settled for Japanese food opposite our hotel. Charlie said the teppanyaki was quite good, so we gave it a try. And see what we ended up eating...

Hiramasa Sashimi

Baby Squid Sashimi

Bacon of WHALE!!!

HORSE belly Sashimi!!!

Yummy Beef

I had this mixed with my green tea. Very nice!

Our chef for the evening

This miso soup had lots of mushroom!

HUGE strawberry for dessert

Hehehe, OK, how many of you guys are salivating buckets already? I know, always good food. Sorry lah, can't help it. I really enjoy eating good stuff. Anyway, on the last day of the exhibition, the crowd was really good. We had good sales on that day. And lots of fun too.

Our super funny DJ

Rachel sampling some shark's fin

And I was craving for Dunkin Donuts

Pity I had to rush to the airport at abt 2pm to catch my 6.30pm plane back home. It was a very long drive from the exhibition hall to the airport, and I was also very afraid the bad traffic jams would cause me to miss my flight. So I had to leave the team there while I left early.

We I finally arrived at the airport, I had to stand in a looooooong queue to clear immigration. They actually took a photo of all incoming people, and now going out, a photo had to be taken as well. So that took a lot of time. I was really getting very tired and hungry by then.

So after I cleared immigration, I went to have some food.

Harmless looking papaya salad which was freaking spicy!

Delicious Beef Bee Hoon

After the food, I had a little bit of time to walk around, pick up some souvenirs and cosmetics from duty free. The walked abt 20 mins to the gate, sat there for abt 10 mins, before I was on my 2 hr ride home to Sunny Singapore...