Bangkok D2 - Pratunam area and Talad Neon Night Market

Still in my sleeping clothes, buying the Thai Ice Tea for breakfast :D - Soi Silom 5, Bangkok

One thing why I love staying at the Heritage Hotel at Silom is because there are local market, food and beverage stalls, and 7-eleven convenient store at nearby area. Since it is located at CBD area, they sell lots of breakfast items in the morning.

The Heritage Bangkok Hotel location (Pic source: Google map)

It was just few minutes walk and you could reach a small alley where you could buy your variety of breakfast items.

Our breakfast for the day :)

Omelette with minced pork and rice was one of my favorites plus the mixture of fried chicken and pork cutlet / skin. They fried it freshly every morning. Cut fruits were cheap and they had lots of varieties. It was good vitamin booster for the day!!! They also had many shops selling hot and cold beverages. In any case, you were really pampered with so many choices and the best thing was the stalls were different every day. They seemed like moving from one place to another everyday (not all stalls though).

SuperRich (green color one) near Chit Lom BTS - Bangkok, Thailand

When you have filled your tummy with food, you are ready to leave the hotel and explore!!! If you don't bring enough Thai Baht with you, worry not!!! There is a place that I can recommend you to go to exchange your currency.

SuperRich (green building) Thailand best rate at Pratunam area - Bangkok, Thailand

Stop at Chit Lom BTS, walk through the connection bridge towards Big C Supercenter. You can go down the bridge after passing the green Big C building. As shown at the map above, follow the road and find the SuperRich money changer. There are two SuperRich though - the orange and green color one. I checked both places and found that the green one offered the best rate. You can also check the rate online here to decide if the rate is good enough or not. So far I found it better to change there than in Singapore or other money changer in Bangkok.

Go Ang Kaomunkai chicken rice (pink color) at Pratunam - Bangkok, Thailand

Once done, you can try famous Hainanese chicken rice from the nearby area. There are two well-known shops selling chicken rice - Go Ang Kaomunkai (pink color one) and Kuang Heng (green color one). If you read the review, the pink color one is more famous and have longer queue.

Kuang Heng chicken rice (green color) - Bangkok, Thailand

I tried both places. Both places sell the rice with steamed chicken. However, at Kuang Heng, they also sell the deep fried chicken cutlet and you can order both at one plate. The taste was similar with what we had in Singapore except that they came with additional sauce that made the overall taste different (if you added them in). Although many would prefer eat at Go Ang Kaomunkai, I personally preferred eating at Kuang Heng. It's subjective though. Can't make up your mind??? Try both places lah!!! :)

Chit Lom BTS surrounding area (Pic source: Google map)

So, change money done, lunch done. Next, time to exercise and shopping!!! :D If you see the map above, you can see many places to go around that area. If you like to shop clothing, you have to visit the Platinum Fashion Mall. It is within walking distance from where you have the chicken rice.

Platinum Fashion Mall - Bangkok, Thailand

Platinum Fashion Mall specializes in wholesale fashion clothing and accessories. It is a six-storey building with over thousand shops inside. When you buy more, you can ask for a much better price!!! (at least try to ask how much if you want to buy 2 or 3 pcs so that roughly you know how much it should cost). You can find lots of things there including goods imported from other countries like China, Korea, Japan, etc. Personally, I prefer to shop here compare with at MBK (Ma Boon Khrong) Center. You won't have any difficulty in communicating with Thai there when bargaining as most know basic English.

Yum Saap at Platinum Fashion Mall Level 6 :)

Btw, there are 3 different zones inside the mall and connected to each other. One with lower level (Zone 3), another one with higher level (Zone 1 and 2) where you can find the food court and my favorite Moshi Moshi shop. Don't just browse around 1 building whole day as you can find many more shops at the building next to it. You can find varieties of local and International food at the Platinum Food Center or food court style  (you need to use card when purchasing food/ beverage and get the refund for the unused amount of money), and if not satisfied, they also have few restaurants there. I tried Yum Saap - Thai restaurant - after tired shopping and walking around. We chose light food (som tum zua - papaya salad with crispy pork skin, Mama noodle spicy salad, and delicious crispy morning glory spicy salad). Hmmm... yummyyy!!!!

Big C Supercenter - Bangkok, Thailand

Well, some people can browse this mall for a whole day. But if you still have time and energy, you can continue shopping, but this time, shop for local snack (Pocky exotic flavor coated stick biscuit), Koala's March mango/ banana biscuits - exclusively sold in Thailand, various Tao Kae Noi flavor seaweed, Mama instant noodles, Koh Kae flavor nuts, Thai tea instant or canned, and so on) and you can get it all at the Big C Supercenter!!!

Colorful rows of tent at Talad Neon Night Market - Bangkok, Thailand

Or otherwise, you can continue your walk and experience Talad Neon night market!!! Please take note that it opens only from Thursday to Sunday from 5 pm to 12 am. I was lucky that it opened on the day I visited the place because I did not pay attention to the opening day's and time's information. This place is famous because of its colorful rows of tents (it is very beautiful if you see it from far above the area).

Container alfresco dining - not for rainy day :D Talad Neon - Bangkok, Thailand

You can browse the place row by row. There are many young hipster and entrepreneur selling their trendy design clothes, apparels, even food and beverage over here. Accompanied with music, you can chill yourself with few glasses of beer and some snack at one of the container alfresco dining style restaurant, feel the night breeze, smoke your cigarette, or even have Thai massage. You can even have a nice haircut over there (especially for men) at THB 250 per head.

Enjoyed the local Thai food at Talad Neon Night Market - Bangkok, Thailand

As for me, after such a long day, I just wanted to have a good local Thai food accompanied with Thai local beer. If you go to Thailand for the first time, you may want to try the charcoal grilled fish coated with salt, which is served with chili dip/ sauce. Two of us ordered that with a big pot of Tom Yum soup and medium size of Pad Thai (stir fried Thai rice noodle with vegetable and prawn/ chicken/ tofu) plus a big bottle of Singha beer and paid THB 700 (SGD $29). Oh man!!! We were simply full and satisfied!!! :)

The Erawan Shrine - four face of Brahma God with night parade - Bangkok, Thailand

Since my stomach was full, I decided to walk back all the way to Chit Lom BTS station. I had to take the Skytrain back to hotel anyway. On the way there, we passed by the Erawan Shrine - the four face of Brahma God. There was parade was going on that night, which I could enjoy from the connecting bridge nearby that area.

The crowd in Erawan Shrine during afternoon - Bangkok, Thailand

Actually in the morning, on your way to the SuperRich, you can also stop there to offer flowers, light the candles, and pray using the incensed sticks. Each face of the Brahma God represents different meaning. Front face - career; left face - romance; back face - money, and right face - health. Well, actually each face signifies different virtues, which are kindness, mercy, sympathy, and impartiality. Many believe that whatever wish that you pray to the shrine there will come true. Many Singaporean go there and pray so that they can win 4D or TOTO back home hahaha... :D

Drink more and eat more fruits :)

Well, that is what you can do on your day 2 visit in Bangkok. Since the weather is tropical (only hot and rain), make sure you drink enough water to avoid dehydration, plus buy and eat some fruits from the road side to make sure you have enough vitamin and do not fall sick. Most importantly, have enough rest or sleep at night. 'Til next post!!! :)