Viktoria Jean

The minute our home-bound aircraft took off, I missed Bangkok already.
Even with my infected tummy hurting so badly from seafood poisoning,
the land of a thousand smiles can’t shake me off.
Thailand, I will be back!!

The amount of insane things we did on this trip was kept to a minimal
We capped it at scuba-diving, really.

For a moment I was thinking: is this the famous Bangkok traffic?!
Then I realized, it’s just a parking field.
Honestly, to be able to park their cars into such neat rows,
Thais have got some serious driving skills.

The real deal isn’t as bad, but close enough.

Now here comes the food!
Basically everything tastes good with their sauces and methods of deep-frying
From these street-foods…

Hollow fish-cakes!

To traditional dishes in the restaurants…

My tastebuds were in for a ride.
So was my weak stomach – of all my friends I’m the only one who got a tummy upset.
The food is safe! I just need to train up my stomach.

Love hunting out cafes in new unknown places,
and here’s one that Dia brought us to
At Sukhumvit 51 Rd, AGALICO, which is sanskrit for ‘Where Time Stops’

Quirky thing is, there are no menu.
You gotta be psychic to work out what they’re serving and the price attached, no kidding.
The ambience was so good.
Outdoor dining in the garden, under the sun.

The rooms upstairs in the white 3-storey cafe-house are dedicated to room furnished in the style reminiscent of the Colonial.

Downside to sight-seeing: we were zapping so hurriedly from place to place,
we had hardly any time to stop, to truly soak in the feel.
I definitely want to be back at Agalico.

Then there’s this night market at Siam District…
Cool old vintage Fords, trucks and collectibles from the ’70s.

Alcohol diesel lamps.
Almost got myself one of these because it’s just too pretty 🙂
Very interesting mix of aesthetics! Relatively global-warming-friendly as well.

After the trip to the nightmarket we had this
Insanely yummy milo powder and milk crispy bread.

ESCOBAR at Bangkok was also one of the places we spent the night,
then went for yummy congee afterwards.
But no pictures because I was afraid I’d lose my camera if I brought it along.
You know, me being me.

Breakfast at Cafe Bicycle right next to our accomodation at Novotel Ploenchit
before setting off for Island Samet.

My cafe latte and Beth’s power-packed fruit juice.

Hearty breakfast!
After we bought ourselves fried sweet potato balls.

Breakfast down, we drove to the pier
and got on a speedboat to the island of Samet
where it’s all sun, sand, sea, beach and people clad in minimal attire.
Snorkelling and Scuba-diving babehhh 😀

ROADTRIP!
CAPTAIN NATAON DIA!
Outside my window~
While I was still awake and alert.
Music in Dia’s car was so perky
it was impossible not to dance to.
Speed-boating~

The welcome sight at our villa Le Vimarn Resort.

Welcome drinks 🙂

Threesome forever
Our four-poster bed, and awesome light entering our room.
Private jacuzzi at the balcony.
Late lunch~ the starters.
Shrek-imitating sauce-holder
Yummy Caesar Salad.
Dia’s risotto.
Our spinach lasagne

Hungry buddies, scarfing down lunch.
In the mornings the villa would serve complimentary breakfast buffet at the same area
Making our way down to the snorkelling dock,
where we got onto a speedboat to take us off-shore for snorkelling.

With Dia! After our first snorkel at this murky zone.
And Beth!

Shallow waters with our speedboat.
Snorkelling at sunset.
The fishes were hungry and waiting for dinner!
All ready to jump off the speedboat. On your mark…
Yes that is me
goggles made my eyes droopy.
Satisfied after touching the fishes, feeding them bread.
And then drinking unfiltered sea-water.
Hmm…

We went for a quick dip at the pool,
then decided we were too hungry for anything else,
hence the instant decision to go for dinner at this seaside restaurant
where there is a fire-show that lures unsuspecting tourists to their shores everyday.
The food was terrible.
But the show was awesome!
And the company I had, the best ever.

The ongoing fireshow:
Kerosene-dipped firetorches literally flew across the diners’ heads,
and the stuntsmen did all sorts of tumbles and somersaults with the firetorches
right before our eyes.
It was insane what these people can do with a huge matchstick, and their agile bodies.

Ice and Fire. Lol.
He took the firetorch from the guy, although we wanted a picture with a stuntsman.

The island is pretty much peaceful past midnight, save for a couple of nightclubs and tourist haunts
So we settled down for games, armed with snacks and other ammunition.
Thai snacks and crisps…too irresistible that we had to use the amenities bowl.

Guess which of us were hungover the day after.
Not the girls 🙂
Good morning~
the breakfast team is hiding holiday fatigue under the shades.

We went for a massage.
Was wide awake throughout while Ice fell asleep.
Pretty awesome view outside the open-air massage parlour.
Mandatory self-shot whenever there is a pretty mirror above a sink
wide enough to do a selca.

We headed offshore again for scuba-diving that day
It was INSANE.
I love it so much, I want a license to dive at free-will
Provided I learn how to swim properly
Instead of puppy-paddling.

After our dives~

Hired truck, one of the fastest transport around the island.
RING THE BELL!
At the pier, where we’re about to be towed in a boat to an offshore restaurant.
Automated towing…

The most amazing thing about the restaurant…
the tables are crystal clear so you could see fishes swimming beneath you

and drop little pieces of rice, meat and veggies for their omnomnom pleasures.
Traditional thai cuisine 🙂 Mango salad!

The feast! And the reason why the 5 of us should never eat together.
Happened way too many times on the trip.
Excessive ordering of food and drinks till we had to play games to get rid of them.

The island. Too pretty for words.
Newfound favourite position to take self-shots…
Not.

Lol this is such a parody.
It rained soon after we decided to leave,
which was a relief because if we hadn’t left,
we would be stuck on the pier.

Clear skies on the other side of the island!
My two cute friends, heading for the sea.
And the photographer, being photographed in action.
On our last 2 dives on the last day at Ko Samet, we headed to new offshore places.
One of which was a sunken ship!!
We totally got to touch the fishes and corals breeding around the wasted wood.
And sat on the seabed while the instructor had a trained fish swim right into our hands…
How adorable!!!
Also, we said hi to nemo and friends…and nemo’s sticky coral reefs.
Everything in that movie came to life in the sea.

We’re going for more Scuba-diving in July again, I cannot wait!
At this point, the boys decided my camera was good enough to take for the dive.
Which it is! It could go 10m underwater.
They were meaning to throw my camera overboard the speedboat many times before.
So they took my camera down with them.
Ake giving the thumbs-up to Ice who was holding my camera…
He took 2 long videos…

And these few photos….

Until my camera batteries were exhausted.
Silly me neglected to bring the charger to Bangkok. Boo.
Last picture taken on the trip…

Lost my phone and camera batteries died.
Fortunately, time was still well-spent without these gadgets to hinder me!

We left Ko Samet for Pattaya that evening, and had more food and drinks till…
I had a bad tummy upset and puked outside a hotel ):
Fortunately we had a room to rest for the night,
because we stopped by this really awesome TrickArt 3D museum at Pattaya
until we ran over the estimated journey time back to Bangkok.

The next morning…rushed to BNH Hospital
where this really nice doctor at A&E told me I had seafood poisoning and infection in both my intestines.
Nurse jabbed the back of my palm to extract blood,
and to inject 3 vials of medicine
while I laid in the hospital bed wide awake, hoping the blood test would be fine
and doctor wouldn’t have to keep me in Bangkok!
Fortunately the infection was minor at that point, hadn’t entered into the bloodstream
so I was free to come back to Singapore that evening.
Service at the hospital was quite good…
they insisted on carrying me around in a wheelchair when I said I didn’t need to.

We left the hospital for more cafe-hunting (on account of my tummyache I couldn’t eat much)
afterward, Dia and Ake drove us to the airport.
Despite the full-load of passengers, we got onto the flight
riding on perks of being part of the company.
In the Cock-pit!!
Awesome view of the sunset from the skies
And we were home 🙂
(In my next lifetime, I wanna be a pilot)
The trip was basically eat-fest.
Feasting from place to place non-stop and loving every minute we spent together 🙂
A short getaway before we officially begin our work in the skies.
Thank you Bangkok and friends!!
I’m ready to work and look forward to more rewarding trips like this!

Missing Bangkok,
and everyone.
XOXO