Bangkok Shopping Day 2: We got pickpocket-ted!? [Pratunam Morning Market, Platinum Mall, Dalat Rot Fai]

I'm back with day 2 of Bangkok! To read day 1, click here.

After the first night of being weary and going to the Siam Night Market, we persisted on for the Pratunam Morning Market again! Hello, what is sleep when you only have 4D3N in Bangkok? 

We skipped breakfast at first, apparently our luggages needs to be filled before our tummies get filled.

What I love about The 93 Hotel is that Pratunam Morning Market is just STEPS away from the hotel. There's no where else you would get such a good location at a price like this (80 SGD per person for 3 nights). We headed out at about 7am and the shops were already bustling.

Pratunam Morning Market

Address: Pratunam, Outside Baiyoke Sky Hotel (or in this case, outside The 93 Hotel)

Opening hours: Approx 6 a.m. - 10 a.m.

Here are some photos of the market as I don't see many photos on this market when researching for the trip.

Pratunam Morning Market is underrated because there are so many bargains here! Do take note that some shopping places (namely the Pratunam Morning Market) only sells their clothes by wholesale pieces (which is min. 3 pieces) as it is after all called Pratunam Wholesale Market as well. 

Though there are lesser tourists here, we quickly spotted some Singaporeans from their accent. No wonder Singapore is a unique place, our accent and phrases can never be found anywhere else.

Another area around Pratunam for shopping is B Gallery, apparently it is a new mall that opened but the mall has several shops opened in the morning so it is a good place to visit in together with the Pratunam Morning Market. You can find it when you walk further in the morning market. The clothes are slightly pricier than the morning market (but still cheaper than Platinum Mall) outside but the designs were definitely better.

One of the more fashionable shops that I've seen around there. I bought a cropped top from them!

On the way inside to B gallery.

A denim shop that sells decent quality denim clothes ranging from 60 baht onwards. We all bought the denim jackets for 100 baht each! It's a steal. 

(Irritating shop that refused to let us mix even though we were willing to buy at wholesale, 3 pieces. They were only willing to sell 3 pieces of the same kind which honestly speaking isn't logical to do so especially when they are pieces with designs and not basics.)

This shop was one of the best. The lady (on the right) was very friendly and even offered us to exchange the shorts if they don't fit. Thumbs up! You can find her at the entrance to B gallery :).

As we were just strolling around for more clothes, we noticed this lady selling some noodle soup. We hesitated for a while because we were looking for directions to Shibuya 19 (horrible place btw avoid it because It's too new of a mall and underdeveloped). We asked for directions from the lady cooking and she was nice enough to tell us where it is. We stood there for a while afterwards and decided to give it a try after some Singaporean Ladies eating it recommended to us as well.

It was the best decision ever made that morning! The soup was clear and warm to fill our tummy in the morning. The noodles felt like Vietnamese pho or kway teow, which was slurp worthy. The clear broth consisted of various parts of the pig including lean meat and liver. If you're Chinese you'll definitely love it as it's part of our culture. Three of us shared a bowl which only managed to fill up about 1/5 of my stomach. We went hunting for the legendary Pratunam Wanton Mee in a few moments. 

The hotel gave us a hand drawn map of the vicinity and we quickly located the street it was on, on the map. It was literally outside of our hotel, turn right for a few steps and walk straight in all the way. I would say the Pratunam Wanton Mee is a 5 minutes walk away. 

Till now as I'm writing this post my mouth is salivating at the thought if the pork lard pieces... I wasn't a fan of pork lard until this year. I've missed so much!

I quickly spotted the signboard (key here is to notice the X2) and went right in. You can see the workers preparing the food from outside for the braised pork rice.

The entrance

Pork Braised Rice. SO GOOD! The pork was bite tender.

The famous Pratunam Wanton Mee.

Chrysanthemum Tea

I gotta admit though, the portions felt like it was for children, especially the wanton mee. And it was SGD 2 per plate which is pricey because I could get a plate of wanton mee back home for SGD 2.50 at about 2x the portion! Nevertheless, it is worth the visit because of the taste.

We hesitated to come here at first because 1/2 the bloggers that blogged about Bangkok did not recommend the noodles. I find that this was never the case for our visit because the noodles were smooth and the char siew and wanton was great. Not to mention the pork lard which probably made me gain a kilogram or so just by that, haha. Also, do get their homemade chrysanthemum as it was refreshing and sweet. We shared 2 bottles among 3 persons and it was just nice. RECOMMENDED!

Do take note of the opening hours though, we went there right after they have opened for the day so we didn't have to wait, but the customers who came in subsequently had to wait outside the shop. And on our last day I was craving for this again but it was already closed (We went there at about 4pm).

Address:
4/32-33 Soi Petchburi 19, Pratunam, Bangkok, Thailand, 
Opening Hours: 9am – 4pm Daily

Next destination in the vicinity: Platinum Fashion Mall! How can anyone come to Bangkok without visiting this mall? It contains about 1/4 of my loots from Bangkok. However, to our dismay, things there were really pricey as compared to what we have read online. It is very unlikely to find a nice statement piece for 100 baht there. If you want something that strikes out, be prepared to pay at least 300 baht. Most items that I bought was about 200 baht, with the exception of a pair of Daisy jeans for 450 baht (why did I even buy it..? IMPULSE BUY! beware of impulse buys in Bangkok, duh). Pricing aside, I gotta say they have one of the most up to date fashion pieces here. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Oh and did I mention that in Bangkok there aren't many shoes around? I mean good quality shoes for affordable price and stunning designs. You'd have better luck buying them at Charles & Keith back in Singapore. Don't bother. Though I did buy a good pair back at 650 baht after endless haggling but that is like S$26 which is SO pricey there.

I love this pair (Route 66) but a pity that I didn't have the extra cash and figure to even buy it. Haha.

By the time it was noon we were quickly exhausted from the big bags that we were carrying and stomachs growling. We went up to the top floor of Platinum Mall for the food court. Do note that they do not accept cash and you have to purchase a food card at the counter. Whatever leftover is fully refundable after you have finished your meal (a separate counter from the purchase card). I would say the food here is pretty pricey, it's about 100 baht (S$4), almost like Singapore's food court! However, they are really clean. Or would I say Thailand's food establishments are REALLY clean. This food court provides a bowl of hot water just beside the utensils for you to give it a quick soak to sanitise the cutleries. Good for clean freaks out there, but not for OCD freaks like me where I would worry about some (very very little) residues in the hot water. I wonder if anyone gets what I mean. Haha. 

Papaya Salad. Didn't have the picture of the actual salad, but it was really sour (even for someone who likes sour stuff) and spicy for me so I didn't enjoy it.

Probably about 70 baht. Tastes like home's tze char of crispy egg noodles with gravy. I could feel MSG quite significantly in this though it was pretty okay tasting.

My friend's claypot noodles. Apparently it's recommended.

Mango Sticky Rice!!! I love this a lot, especially the little rice cereal at the side. When we were buying this, there were many colour for the rice to choose from. I think it's different herbs but I just decided to go with all because, WHY NOT. Instead of having the usual white glutinous rice, we tried all the colours. And the mangoes here are light tasting and mildly sweet. It's just alright. :). On the topic of fruits, I LOVE the guava here. Tried some and it was crunchy yet sweet, unlike the ones we have here which are mostly on the bitter side and has to be sweetened with some sour plum powder.

On our way back to our hotel from the Platinum Fashion Mall to put down our loots before massage, we walked past the Pratunam market area. It was REALLY crowded, and we managed to squeeze through the crowds. Bought a cup of corn from this lady over here and it's just a cart that is pushing back and forth the streets, stopping whenever someone wants to buy.

It's really unique though, I believe there was condensed milk, butter and sugar in the cup corn. Tasted really sinful (FATS) but who cares.

And also... I believed my friend's bag got SLASHED here. We didn't even notice anything unusual, except the squeezy streets. After we got back to the hotel, Millie realised that her bag had a big hole, and when she showed us it was quite apparent it was slashed because it doesn't look like a tear. It was straight, and some stuff dropped out. Thank God (for protecting her from the slash as well!), nothing valuable fell off. She had her camera and wallet but none of it came out, except some packets of tissue and what nots. It was really by the hand of God that she didn't get hurt at all! But yeah the moral of the story is that no matter how tight you grab your bag, put it in the front, you still might encounter such things. So a word of advise is to avoid really crowded places.

We left for our massage at Lek Massage.We were torn between Lek and Chang Massage at first because they were both side by side, at Siam Square. However we settled for Lek Massage because the queue for Chang Massage was quite long.

Note that Siam Square is not a shopping mall (mentioned previously in Day 1) but an area of shops from Soi 1 - 10 (if I am not wrong).

The foot massage here was 250 baht, and PLEASE remember to tip the masseuse! We were so embarrassed after finding out that the masseuse will actually wait for you at the cashier to collect tips from you (we didn't realise until we went for our second massage at Chang). So yes, 250 baht is not the definite price. I would say tip them an extra 50 baht, it isn't much really.

Onto the massage, it really wasn't fantastic. I could barely feel anything. I think an OSIM machine would have done better. But it was all for the experience after all, and having read the reviews of Lek's, it seems that it really depends on your luck if you get a good masseuse or not. I got a young boy which seems around my age (about 20 years old) and seems pretty amateur. Perhaps it would be better to request for a senior masseuse. Both my friends agreed as well that their leg massage wasn't fantastic as well so perhaps a second thought before stepping in next time.

Right around the corner is Inter. We were deciding between Inter and Somtam but decided to step into Inter because of the variety. The menu at Somtam was only a page full of pictures and was honestly disappointing to look at. Inter, on the other hand, has more varieties and is recommended by bloggers as well.

We were quickly seated at the second floor. It was about 5.30 p.m. and the shop was relatively empty.

Tom yum gong (soup)!

There were prawns, squid and mushrooms in it. Really tasty and adequately spiced for our taste buds. 

This was my chicken and rice dish. I was so disappointed as I smelt something weird when my dish arrived. It honestly smelled like crap or fart of some kind. It tasted alright but the smell was overwhelming and bursting even in my mouth. I didn't finish in the end. I think it was the sauce, but I only ate the egg and half the rice. Disappointed.

Pork fried rice, which was super awesome. 

Pad Thai. It was quite good!

Address:

Siam Square Soi 9


We were headed for Dalat Rot Fai (or Talat Rot Fai) after dinner. It was honestly the hardest place to get and I have no idea how we even managed to get there except by the grace of God! Please leave a comment below if you know a shorter, easier way to get there.

We were excited as it is the first time on the Bangkok rail.

So new and clean!!

We took a train from Siam BTS station to On Nut BTS and took a cab. Not surprising, no cab drivers knew where is Dalat Rot Fai, except Seacon Square (which is the nearest shopping centre to the place). Even the locals did not understand where was this place. Luckily, a kind lady who barely speaks any English helped us flag a cab, directed the cab driver to drop us at Seacon Square and even asked for meter (you gotta understand it is HARD to convince the cab drivers there to drive on meter because they'd rather charge you more on a flat rate). We were on the cab for almost a good 15 - 20 minutes before we reached Seacon Square and still had to navigate our way there. It was honestly horrifying because it was dark and the cab driver had to drive through some small streets which we do not recognise at all.

After getting to Seacon Square, all you need to do is look out for this tall black building in the centre of the image and walk straight up. Dalat Rot Fai is somewhere on your left after a 5 minutes walk.

Tall black building still in place..

STOP RIGHT HERE! This is the huge icon (huge ship) to spot to know that you have reached Dalat Rot Fai. Wow, we took almost an hour to get here it was exasperating.

Opening hours as stated at Dalat Rot Fai: Thursdays - Sundays, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Lots of vintage shops around, including bicycles.

They do sell some clothes here but weren't really to our tastes as we prefer Platinum Mall and Chatuchak Weekend Market.

If you're thinking of redecorating your house then this might be the place to visit.

There were TONS of motorbikes here. At least a thousand, I think.

As you can see, there is a lively night market here at Dalat Rot Fai besides the shops so it is a great place to be at besides the over visited malls!

Things they sell here are mostly: Clothes, accessories, mobile accessories, and ecetera. 

I loved this shop. But they were too fancy for me to bring home.

At Dalat Rot Fai there are quite a few drinking places and I personally think that this area is a great place to chill out. It was really cool (slight drizzle afterwards) on the night we were there as well.

How can we forget a group shot. :)

It was hard to find our way back. We were stranded outside Dalat Rot Fai for a while, until we managed to flag a cab that was more than willing to fetch us all the way back to our hotel (about 30 minutes!!) at a flat rate (I think it was about 300 baht). So yes, that is the way we got there and back. What's yours? I'm really interested to know how to navigate to this place that's so deep within Bangkok.

Address:

Soi Srinakarin 51, ​​Srinakarin Rd.,

Nongbon, Prawet, Bangkok 10250

Opening hours:

Thursdays - Sundays, 5 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Before returning to our room, we stopped by a few stalls outside the hotel to grab some snacks. We had some pomegranate juice which was subtly sweet but it ended up staining our teeths :P. By the way, it was 100 baht for this probably 200ml worth of juice. Quite pricey. 

This dessert prata was the bomb! I initially didn't want it because I was afraid that it is kinda dirty as the guy selling it was handling money and flipping the prata with the same pair of hands. After being convinced by my two other friends I was like YOLO. Tried it and it was awesome. It's crispy, much like a biscuit and topped with condensed milk and chocolate syrup. It was only 40 baht and there were other flavour/toppings as well.

So here concludes day 2 of our adventure in Bangkok, I am so glad to be back in Singapore but I'll continue writing for the next day of our trip for all you curious cats out there.

I'll be writing on Chatuchak weekend market on the next post, definitely don't miss it! See ya so soon! 

Set your eyes on the above,

Kristy