HELLO KITTY CAFE @ SIAM SQUARE ONE

If you're a rabid Hello Kitty fan, welcome to kitty heaven @ Siam Square One, which is just beside Siam BTS station. Walk through the mall and it's on the other side. 

You can order something to go from their side booth beside the main entrance at the street level (soft serve ice cream 80 Baht; milk tea/iced tea 70-100 Baht) but who wouldn't want to walk in and take a peek?!

On the first floor (@ street level)

 On the second floor :

The merchandise where little girls go crazy are sold at the basement. It even has a Hello Kitty car parked inside. 

THE BOUTIQUES @ SIAM SQUARE ONE

I was super excited when Siam Square One opened since I kept seeing the construction works while I stand on the Siam BTS platform for a period of about two years on past trips. 

Then I was kinda disappointed when I finally got to visit it some months ago. No air-condition in public spaces! I'm one who whispers a big THANK YOU! to the inventor of air-condition(er) whenever I walk into cool air from the Sahara Desert outside. At this huge mall, they have it at the basement where the little shops gather but it's free Bangkok air from the ground floor up. Hot but true!

Aside from this unfortunate state of eco-friendliness, the mall does have its good share of terrific restaurants (separate blog post) and local brands. So please adopt a very Zen and unperturbed state of mind, battle the heat out and sashay immaculately from store to store.

I am a huge fan of Thai retail design and in this mall, there are quite a few that are just eye-catching inside out. They tempt me in, even if it's just to window shop. And once inside, the design and creativity of the products are often Bangkok WOW worthy.

The Concept boutique is one of the very few here that has plenty of sartorial choices for the male customers.

Labrador has excellent accessories and stuff you don't really need but absolutely desire. 

At Very WHALE, I'm very impressed at their very extremely happy collection of printed bags and accessories this season. 

COTTO CURIOUS is an interesting concept store. It serves coffee and cakes and has a motorbike parked in it but the rest of the space seems to be for different collaborations that changed every time I popped by. It could be an exhibition, a new hi-tech product, or a combination of various interesting launches. 

On the top floor, which is now de rigueur with many new malls, are the many skin and lazer clinics that don't claim to promote extreme makeovers. But if you try everything they promote, it can also make you become a Jackie Chan who asked "WHO AM I ?". Not on top of a mountain like he did in the movie but in front of a mirror, most probably!

I shall end this post with something not terribly glamorous but it is something I like to encourage. Have your teeth cleaned and scaled in Bangkok. It's so much cheaper (like half the price when I compare it to Q&M) and executed in a better environment than that squeezy space you have to endure in Singapore. There is almost one in every shopping mall in Bangkok and I treat it as an hour's rest when my feet are tired from all that walking. 

At Inspire Smile on the top floor of Siam Square One, cleaning and scaling is 900 Baht, which seems to be the going rate in malls at Bangkok.

VINTAGE CLOTHING @ UNION MALL

If you are into vintage clothing cos you are an unique and exquisite creature, do pay a visit to Vintage Me on the top floor of Union Mall. You'll have to wait for my directions to go there if don't know how to.

This shoppe overspills itself into the public spaces, which is excellent as there is ample space to take your time and browse. I was there for twenty minutes and no one disturbed me. In fact, the corner it's in has only a few shops and during weekdays, it is extremely devoid of traffic. 

The range and variety it has amassed is quite staggering so you may squeal a little as you discover some precious gems in their midst. There is a predominantly 70s vibe to the entire collection.

For the guys, there's an entire rack of good ol' leather jackets for you to soothe and caress.

The ladies may want to rummage through the various accessory stands for that purrfect D&D Shanghai theme nite. 

I apologise for not even getting a gist of the prices for the various items. I will check them out the next time I visit. 

WASH THAT CHLORINE OFF!

Good buy @ Boots - It's so difficult to find a reasonably-priced chlorine removal shampoo in Singapore. The last one I bought at Kiels was $35! This range from Boots costs around $10 each and they have one for dry hair, coloured hair, hair mask and a body wash cum shampoo 2-in-1. Even better, ask for a tourist card and get a 5 per cent discount from all products bearing the Boots brand. 

I bought 2 tubes, stashed them separately in my luggage but one was still confiscated at the customs as it was 150ml. Fortunately, I found a Boots after check-in. It's located at Gates G 1-5. So I bought another one.

LIFT THAT DROOPY LIP UP

Once you reach a certain age, you are introduced to the Law of Gravity which, unfortunately, gives us droopy lips and make us smile upside down even if we hate to. 

Well, have no fear as I am going to share my experience of fixing this with the help of my two best friends - Botox and fillers! 

In Bangkok, there are a few doctors who can perform this miracle of raising the corners of your petulant lips when they plunge downwards. I have been doing this correction a couple of times with them for the past three years. 

Depending on how serious your situation is (ranging from kind souls inquiring if you are merely upset over something to asking directly if your cat died without informing you), your lip situation can be saved by injecting Botox or one of several kinds of filler brands or possibly both.

Let me share with you my recent session slightly more than one week ago. First, numbing cream was applied generously across my lip area. Cling wrap was then placed over and I had to wait for an hour for the numb to really set in. For those with a really low threshold for pain, you may ask the doctor to inject a numbing solution instead which is supposedly stronger. I will explain why my entire face is covered at a later date. 

Once the area is numb and I don't holler when I am pinched there, my doctor set to work. Because I had done this a couple of times in the past, my lips are not in an emergency state so I only had the filler Juvedum injected above the end of my upper lip (to lift) and below the end of my lower lip (to prop up).  

I am given the gag order after the injections are done - a cold press pack firmly held over the mouth for several minutes. If you are demanding why I am wearing pink eye shadow at a time like this, again, I will explain later. 

This is immediately taken after I went back to my apartment. I am actually scowling as much as I can but the lips remained happily upwards at the ends. You can still see two injection marks. And you can compare my scowl in the first pic - how my lips turn downwards then. 

This is one day after. The propping up of fillers on the ends of my lower lip actually pushed out my lower lip quite a bit. Any more and I can be gainfully employed by the Post Office to lick stamps. But this situation quickly disappeared the next day. 

I must emphasise that while many doctors can turn your upside down lips the right way up, they may not always do a good job. I looked like The Joker from the Batman movies for two weeks the first time I had it done! So do your research well.

And remember to drink lots of water after every filler job as it helps to plump up the filler molecules within. 

Unless you have lips as big as the Merlion (it's SG50 after all), you probably need only a syringe of Botox or filler, or a combination of both for this unhappy expression. A reputable clinic in Bangkok will charge you about 15,000 Baht per 1CC filler and 4000 to 8000 baht for Botox.

This was a before and after scowl taken last year, a month in between :

THE MUSCLED MEN OF SOM TUM @ CHATUCHAK MARKET

If you are in Chatuchak (JJ) Market and happen to find yourself lost in Area D (you are always almost certainly lost in this sprawling maze anyway), you may want to search for this stall that hires hawt guys as servers because everybody knows you need rippling muscles to sell som tum that sizzles. 

As you can see, the boys are pretty accommodating when it comes to posing for pics. I suppose it is in their contract of employment. Please be gentle with them and don't drown them with your saliva. Wear a bib if necessary. 

And yes, that ultra dramatic apparition in far-out pink regalia is the stall owner who came up with this highly visual sales strategy. Would you prefer he goes topless too?

As expected, I scoured the net for reviews of the som tum (Thai papaya salad) and didn't find any!

FOOD SAMPLING AT PIER 21 FOOD COURT, TERMINAL 21

This food court sits on the top floor of Terminal 21 and is super crowded during lunches and dinners so if you are a tourist, you should visit outside of these periods or risk carrying a tray laden with food and walking round and round like a 7th month ghost. 

Okay, it seems like there's a huge debate over Pier 21 food court amongst my friends. Some say the stalls serve food that are MEH while others say it's a must try. As inspired most beautifully in the pic above shot by me, WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

This was my first two trips there as I seemed to be at Terminal 21 with an extremely full belly on all my previous trips. I went with Pauline on our first evening in Bangkok and I went alone on the last lunch of my trip. Compared to the other food courts like TOPS and Food Republic (even more expensive), the pricing here is most certainly cheaper. You can find singular dishes for 25 to 40 Baht here. 

We tried a stall that sells three different types of congee. 

We shared the fish congee for 35 Baht and it was extremely smooth (they might have pounded the rice grains or use broken ones?). It was good value for $$$ as there were sizeable chunks of delectable fish in it. SLURP! In fact, I automatically ate the same dish on my own the second time round. 

And this being Bangkok, it was terrific to load up as much chopped spring onions and sliced ginger as you jolly well wish. We also shared the 3-meat noodle (cha-siu, duck and sio bak). The noodles look like our wonton type but in a much darker brown colour and it was delicious! 

On my second trip alone, I had the seafood tom yum noodles. Being rebellious, I chose the instant noodle version (have you seen the online video of what they do inside your stomach for four hours?). Okay, the fishcake tasted pretty dead but you could tell the prawn had a good life and the squid was feeling exuberant before it died. As for the sexy runny egg, I think its parents were feeling pretty good when they mated. Squawk but true.  

For dessert, Pauline and I pounced on the mango with sticky rice. It was purrfection. Would you just look at how nicely they are presented?! 

I will return again and again to this post for the other stalls I will sample on future trips. Stay tuned.