From Asia and Beyond

My first breakfast in Bangkok, a heart-shaped Khaw Phat Kung ( Shrimp Fried Rice). I guess the hotel we stayed in was already on a Valentine’s mood so, all their rice dishes were heart shaped.

My kids have known about Kidzania through a blog. They’re actually looking forward to go to Kidzania in Kuala Lumpur in May. But when we went to Siam Paragon in Bangkok early this week, we were so surprised to see Kidzania in their building directory. We were on the 2nd floor at that time when we saw the directory so, we excitedly went up the 4th floor ( as written on the directory) to see the place. When we were at the 4th floor we couldn’t find it there, but we found another building directory. But this time, it was written there that Kidzania is on the 5th floor. Up we went again to the Cinema area but couldn’t find it. And as before, we found another Building Directory but we were bummed when we saw a small sticker beside  Kidzania – coming soon ! Ugh.. our kids were so disappointed and even my preschooler cried in frustration. My daughter couldn’t help but complain why they didn’t ‘warn’ the people on their earlier sign that Kidzania is not yet there. Oh, so sad..

So we will just have to wait till we go to KL this May and visit the Kidzania branch there. If you’re not familiar with Kidzania, you might be wondering why all this fuss about the place. Well, it’s actually an indoor ‘theme park’ where kids can take the roles of adults. It’s like their own world where they can work as nurses and be in nurse uniforms , be pilots or anything they want to be. My kids are just so excited about it an have already decided what careers they would like to try out once they’re in Kidzania. But they have to wait until May, since we also don’t know when the Kidzania in Bangkok will open.

We just came from Bangkok – the shopper’s haven. Oh well, if you’re into shopping and if you have a lot of money that is. But even if you’re on a budget, one can’t still resist great bargains and cheap stuff especially at the night markets or weekend markets.

For those who are into music and wants to buy all these musical gadgets, one can find them in the shopping malls. But you must do proper research first before you go there, because Bangkok has so many big malls that will leave you dizzy after awhile. LOL! So, if you want to digitech products, then you have to find out first where you can specifically find them.

As for clothes and accessories, that’s not a problem since they are found everywhere!

 Whenever we visit a new city or province, one place that I would always like to see is the museum. Aside from most of the museums giving ‘free entrances’, one can also learn a lot about the city’s history and culture.

The following photos are taken from the city museum of Nakhon Si Thammarat. It’s not a very big museum but I was impressed as to how they creatively ‘told’ their city’s history.

Upper L-R : The miniature classroom with the teacher explaining about Thai education; The dark room is actually a ‘ship’ which rocks back and forth (simulating a ship) as the movie is shown about the trading route. Lower L-R: the mini lake, with small boats which people used to sell things before; A Thai family during the olden times.

We’re getting ready to go to Bangkok next week. I actually need to do renew my Philippines passport in there, before I can renew my Malaysian visa this May. It’s good I was reminded of my expiring passport last  year because we were able to book promotional tickets to and from Bangkok via Airasia. Imagine, we only paid a little more than 2 thousand Baht for 4 round trip tickets! Yeah, it’s way much cheaper than going by train or bus.

While I was searching for information about passport renewals in the internet, I didn’t fail to check out shopping malls or attractions in Bangkok too. As known to many, Bangkok is a shopping haven where one can buy anything from  clothing accessories to adult lingerie costumes . But for our family, since we’re on a budget, shopping will have to be at the end of our list but we’ll take this time as a time of bonding and relaxation.