Bangkok Dangerous (no, not really)

There's nothing much to write about Bangkok, except that it was awesome! Apart from some glitch in the beginning (our baggage went to Sydney) and receiving it only two days later, and that one whole, full day of shooting a short film. Our friends were such great hosts and props to Justin Bratton, Sarah Hodgens, Adrian Bowden, Christian Nsame, Ken Chang and Shelva (and their other friends too) for making it such an enjoyable trip.

We left Kuala Lumpur in the morning and arrived just in time for lunch with the team, left the city to look for props, and to check out the studio in the outskirts. It was sort of a rushed thing since most of us weren't in Bangkok to prepare for the stuff before that. Things went well with the shoot, and expecting the outcome to be awesome. I was working AND sleeping at the same time, no joke cause it was so tiring.

One thing I noticed while I was there, was the abundant number of Japanese restaurants. I know we have a lot here in Kuala Lumpur but nothing, nothing prepared me for the shock of my life when I got this bento set (the one in the red/black box + miso soup + chawanmushi) for only RM24..Yep, twenty four. Dua puluh empat. Cause you know why? RM24 can only get me a few slices of salmon sashimi, rice, miso and chawanmushi here in Sakae Sushi. No kiddin! I ate like a pig in Bangkok. Seafood is AWESOME (I don't really eat seafood here). One thing though, their wasabi packs a punch. Like really punching until I teared up in just one pop of a sushi roll T_T

Justin and Adrian talking to Max the assistant regarding some studio issues.

We then decided to split for a while, so we could roam around the central and buy necessities. Note that I didn't have toothbrush, undergarments and extra change of clothes. Note to self: check luggage tags next time after they paste it on the conveyor belt  -_-"


I get really cranky when my time is wasted like that, instead of being able to go sightseeing ugh

Ended up at Paragon Siam, a super duper posh mall while looking so frumpy. Never again.

Next day was a rehearsal, with the main actors over some simple Thai street packed lunch. Hardworking, aren't we?

But point8cam and I decided to run around on our own during dinner, checked out malls and such before we dove into the shooting mode for the next day. Ended up buying nothing but food! It's insane how street snacks are easily available at every corner of town but I guess we were too tired and headed back to rest instead. The rest, were just saving energy for the next day.

Awesome Tom Yam Kung, my favourite.

Shooting day was insane. Our luggage only arrived at 4am in the morning, and I fell asleep sitting upright while waiting for them. Only when we've packed the equipments that we took a cab to the outskirts. Most cabbies in Bangkok are reliable, according to Justin and Sarah as they used meters instead of having to haggle prices. And we didn't feel any sense of threatened or dangerous vibes with cabbies there. Except for one that had to play some fengtau song (tiu tiu tiu tiu at 6 am in the morning! what the...)

I helped set up the set with millions of candles bought by Sarah while the actors did a rehearsal. I fell asleep halfway while Sarah was on her iPad. At times like those, I wished I bought one.

And being such a sweetheart, she asked me whether I wanted to eat anything. I was up for some authentic Thai snack so she bought Som Tam for herself and I. Som Tam is sort of like a grated young mangoes drizzled with fish sauce and garnished with anchovies, peanuts and chilli. I chose the non-spicy one but I was sweating balls already! Imagine the spicy one (which Sarah ordered). That was some good snack.

Shoot went on from 6am to 11pm on the same day and we finished the whole movie in the same day. Crazy scheduling! Everyone konon wanted to be heroes and wanted to continue with a wrap-up party but everyone died right after we sent the equipments loaned to us from the filming school. We even had to wait cause the school auto locked after a certain hour so there was some issue right there but we settled it, only to die in our sleep that night. 

Everyone woke up pretty late, so we headed straight for lunch at Justin's old neighbourhood area after he sent back some of the props to a friend. Good ol' Thai lunch although you gotta be wary of the amount of pork they serve. Try to stick with seafood instead.

We split up after lunch cause I wanted to shop and Justin and Sarah had to run some errands so point8cam teman-ed me from one mall to another. Crazy that we were taking the Skytrain (sort of like the LRT) like a pro already! Ended up at Central World, then Platinum Mall and then some place out of town for dinner at Polkadot Cafe with Justin and Sarah's friends. We were like the only Asians there -_-"

The working models in Bangkok (even their car girls) looks way better than the lala muis here, no kiddin. I found myself checking out girls instead! hahahaha

Had dinner at a beautiful garden-esque building, and some wrap-up party with the rest. Insane funny and chaotic night. That was the first time I had a fine-dining sort of raw tuna covered in spices and herbs. Phenomenal! ok maybe I was just a little jakun hahahaha

Sunday, was our last day there so I forced point8cam (hahaha not really la) to follow me to Chatuchak Market while the rest were settling stuff before we all come back to KL. Met up with Ken and Shelva there, as they guided us through the thousands of stalls (it's impossible to go through all within a day) but by evening, the stores goes out in the little streets with their racks and starts clearing off their stocks. It was illegal that when authorities come by, they'd pack up as fast as lightning. But it was mad fun that I get to bargain the clothes til they cost from RM10-25 each. SO CHEAP CAN CRY BLOOD!

I was hesitant to spend much, being me cause I'm always the type that think first before buying but point8cam was like "This is your last day to shop here, you really wanna go home and regret not buying things?". That shot me like an electric chair and I just went around without thinking of whether I should cause seriously, for below RM50 a piece, if I can't fit in it, I'll just give it to my sister instead. I ended up with a pile of clothes. Not as many as I wanted but it was fine. It's nice to not have to think whether to buy, for once.

You can find snacks like these at Chatuchak and it's super cheap! 

Bought three of these rings and bargained for RM40 only!

And these fried squid eggs, were phenomenal! I regret not having time to eat more cause I'd spoil dinner.

Ken treated us to dinner at a brewery out of town called TaeWandang. If you're into drinking I'm sure you'll enjoy this place. A bit uncle-like for me, but the food was awesome. I've never had deep fried catfish before and that was my first time. And no, it's not like the normal whole fish, fried. They sort of like fried the flesh til it's super crispy like crackers and when dipped with Thai Chilli Sauce, it's an explosion as your savour the flavours.

Four of us left Bangkok the next day while Ken & Shelva headed to Chiang Mai to his villa (must go next time!) and here is my Bangkok purchases:

I had so much fun in this city of lights but I felt that I didn't explore it enough due to work and time constraints. Plus, the whole baggage issue kinda killed our mood for the first two days cause point8cam's thousand dollars worth of camera equipments were in it.

I'm definitely going back ;)

Meanwhile, you can either watch my Bangkok Calling video:








or watch part 1 of point8cam's "Whatever There Was in Bangkok":




Whatever There Was in Bangkok (Part 1 of 2) from point8cam on Vimeo.


And part 2 of "Whatever There Was in Bangkok"



 
Whatever There Was in Bangkok (Part 2 of 2) from point8cam on Vimeo.


xx