Rotiboy : The Bun to Die For !

There is this new craze amongst Bangkokians. Rotiboy ! The Bun to Die For... The new bakery shop, just opened recently in 2 places : Siam Square and Silom Road. Currently they are selling only 1 item, the Rotiboy itself (Roti = bread - in Malay). This Rotiboy is a delicacy topped with a crunchy layer of coffee. The smell is so strong and delicious that you can immediately recognize it from as far as 100 meters. The branch in Siam is so strategically located that once one gets out of the skytrain, one can immediately smell the coffee aroma of Rotiboy. Their selling line is : "One is never enough". Guess it's true :-P

In both branches, people are lining up in the queue as far as more than 20-30 meters long ! We had only 2 times experience of buying and eating this Rotiboy. The first time, we were so lucky. We passed by Siam Square and there was this short queue of Rotiboy. We bought 2 and enjoy it. We loved it, and decided to come. We tried to visit more than 5 times, the queue was getting longer and longer until it encircled the whole building complex ! Then, one time after morning mass in church, we went straight to Silom branch, and Thank God, the queue was ONLY 15 meters :) It took us 45 minutes to get our yummy Rotiboy. Now Rotiboy limits each purchase to only up to 10 pieces, more than that, you should get another buddy to accompany you in the queue.

People are getting more and more desperate to get a taste or to re-taste Rotiboy. We believe Rotiboy should be more careful as there is a limit for a person of being desperate :-) Marketing wise, they have been so succesful creating a buzz via word of mouth. The francise owner told Bangkok Post newspaper that she was not this succesful in the beginning until she decided to do some free sampling to key thought leaders, e.g. politicians, celebrities, also to some students from nearby campuses.

Rotiboy originated in Malaysia, then expanded to Singapore, Indonesia, and now Thailand. For more information, go to their website at www.rotiboy.com

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Gong Xi Fa Cai again !

Hooray, Chinese New Year comes again. As usual, the whole Thailand and especially Bangkok celebrates the Lunar New Year heavily with concentration in Yaowaraj (China Town) area. It's our second Chinese New Year in Bangkok. Like last year, this year we also went down to Yaowaraj to see the happenings. Also as usual, people are dressed with read. The place was crowded with both local and foreign visitors. Here are some of the beautiful pictures we took during the event. Enjoy !

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Colorful Taxi in Bangkok

Tampil matching dari baju, sepatu sampai tas ? itu sudah biasa. Di Bangkok, bahkan bisa matching-matching-an dengan warna taxi. Lagi berpenampilan ala barbie, pilih taxi warna pink. Lagi ingin jadi "lady in red", naik aja taxi warna merah menyala. Lagi jadi aktivis pencinta tanaman, pilih taxi hijau. atau kalau cuma ingin naik taxi bernuansa benar-benar taxi, warna kuning khas taxi juga tersedia di sini.

Yap, taxi di sini memang beraneka warna. merah, kuning, hijau, biru, orange, ungu. Walaupun berbeda-beda, tapi tarif semuanya sama. Untuk 2 km pertama THB 35, untuk km berikutnya sampai dengan km 12, THB 4.5/km, antara km 12 sampai km 20, THB 5/km, dan selebihnya THB 5.5/km. Jika terjebak macet, tarifnya THB 1.25/menit

Ganti shift taxi di sini sekitar pk. 3.30-4.00 pm, dan kadang mereka tidak mau terima penumpang, kecuali tempat tujuan sesuai dengan tujuan mereka. Jika hujan, banyak taxi yang tidak mau angkut penumpang, kecuali tujuannya tidak "merepotkan" mereka (=daerah tidak macet, banjir, dan sejenisnya).

Umumnya supir taxi di sini jujur. Walaupun penumpang orang asing yang tidak tahu jalan-jalan di Bangkok, tapi mereka tidak membawa penumpang putar-putar. Selain itu umumnya juga, supir taxi di sini bisa berbahasa inggris sedikit.

Walaupun sekarang ini mulai dibuat tanda taxi stand, namun tampaknya penumpang dapat menghentikan taxi dimanapun.

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Christmas & New Year in Illuminated Bangkok

It's our second Christmas and New Year in Bangkok. The city is very well illuminated and dotted with so many Christmas Trees.

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New Craze in Bangkok : Siam Paragon !

Latest update for Bangkokians and visitors who plan to go to Bangkok. A new shopping paradise was just opened in Siam area : The Siam Paragon. It was built on the site of former Siam Intercontinental Hotel. Siam Paragon claims to be the biggest shopping mall in South East Asia. They call it : The Pride of Bangkok. The mall is so big, it contains an aquarium down under : Siam Ocean World.
The mall is owned and operated by the same owner and operator of The Emporium, another high end shopping center of Bangkok which recently just had a thorough make-over.
There is no better way to get there than taking the BTS Skytrain. Taxis, tuktuks, buses will get stuck before even reaching Siam area because of the ever increasing traffic to this area.
This mall is clearly an upscale one with showrooms of luxurious cars, such as Ferrari, Maserati, BMW, high-end boutiques like Prada, Shanghai Tang, Jimmy Choo, Chanel, Guess?, etc. On the ground floor there is the food area, i.e. the Food Hall and some other restaurants, ranging from mid-tier (KFC, MK) to the high-tier ones (Greyhound, Crystal Jade, etc).
The key tenant is Paragon Department store. It has very similar format and design as well as product assortment as the sister in Sukhumvit: The Emporium Department Store. California Wow fitness center also opened a branch here. On top, it's the entertainment center : bowling, cinemas, 3D movie cinema. The cinema name is Paragon Cineplex, not taking any name of chain cinemas of Bangkok (Major, EGV nor SFX). Huge and ultra modern lobby.
Outside the building, inbetween to Siam Center there is a wide open space area. It's nice with a modern fountain strip and palm trees. However, it can be extremely hot during summer time. Besides serving as transition area to Siam Center, this area is also used to held some promotional (BMW event, Dutch Mill Dairy event) and non promotional (Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc) events.
The Siam Paragon building is very well connected (at 2 gates) to the BTS Skytrain Siam Station. It also connects well to the newly refurbished Siam Center. The Siam area is now really a shopping paradise, where one can hop on from Siam Square, to Siam Paragon, continuing to Siam Center, then Siam Discovery and ending in Mah Boon Krong (MBK).

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Muang Boran: TMII ala Thailand

Minggu, 23 oktober 2005...
Untuk mengisi long weekend kali ini (dari tanggal 22-24 okt, 24 okt substitusi chulalongkorn memorial day yang jatuh hari minggu tanggal 23 oktober), kami bersama sesama teman indo di bangkok, Mbak Lies dan Mas Ethan, berkunjung ke Muang Boran (=Ancient City) yang terletak di km. 33 (old) Sukhumvit Road, Bangpoo .

Untuk sampai ke sana, kami naik skytrain (BTS) sampai stasiun on nut, lanjut bus No. 511 sampai akhir rute bus, dan kemudian naik song-theaw (minibus) No. 36 sampai di pintu gerbang muang boran.

Setelah membayar tiket masuk seharga THB 300, kami pun memilih sepeda yang akan kami pakai untuk keliling tempat ini. Sebenarnya ada 3 alternatif untuk menjelajah tempat ini: naik tram (dengan tour guide berbahasa thai, bila ingin tour guide berbahasa inggris bayar biaya tambahan THB 75), naik mobil golf (bayar THB 200/jam), naik sepeda (selain sepeda biasa, juga disediakan sepeda tandem untuk 3 orang). Kami memilih 1 sepeda biasa dan 1 sepeda tandem.

Untuk keliling tempat ini, kami berpatokan pada peta yang diberikan pada saat membayar tiket masuk.

Muang Boran ini mengingatkan kami akan TMII kalau di Indo. Di atas lahan seluas 320 acre ini didirikan replika istana, museum, stupa, rumah tradisional yang ada di thailand. Sesuai dengan info yang kami baca di peta, terdapat 116 lokasi yang dapat dikunjungi di tempat ini! Beberapa diantara yang kami kunjungi adalah:
Pavilion of the Englightened: dibangun di atas "danau", dengan struktur atap yang sangat rumit.
The Floating Market: dijadikan tempat makan. dibangun mirip dengan floating market, dengan stall-stall yang menjual makanan dan lengkap dengan perahun-perahunya.
The Royal Water-Cource Procession: "armada" barge
Semeru Mountain: Dibangun di atas "danau", sekelilingnya dilingkari oleh ikan (?)
Sanphet Prasat Palace, Ayutthaya: dengan bagian dalamnya penuh dengan detail ornamen.
The garden of the gods: taman dengan patung dewa-dewa sesuai dengan hari.

Tempat ini tampaknya terkenal di kalangan orang Thailand saja, walaupun ada beberapa turis asing yang kami jumpai di sini.

Sore hari, kami pun pulang dengan menempuh rute yang sama.

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That cute condo in ถมมสุขุมวิท 12

Willy moved to Bangkok in April 2004 and Visca moved in June 2004. We now live in a brand new apartment with contemporary interior design. The location is perfect: within walking distance to Asoke skytrain and Sukhumvit subway stations. Our complete address is :
Room 8B, Cosmo Villa Apartment, Soi Sukhumvit 12, Khlong Toey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.
Here's our address in Thai language:
คอสโมวิล่า ห้อง 8B - ถมมสุขุมวิท 12

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