Tag Archives: thailand

Seacon Square’s kiddie amusement park, take one for the team and bring your kiddo’s here!

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This was an unexpected day. My youngest insisted that she and ‘mother’ take me to a train night market even after I told them that I had been to one already (will post about the two train markets shortly). You know, it’s very rare that my teenager wants to hang out all day with me, so of course I jumped at this fortuitous chance!

We hopped into a Grab taxi and off we went (from On Nut BTS station, it cost roughly $200 BHT). Around 30 minutes later we arrived at a mall called Seacon Square. I was told we were going to shop here because the night market doesn’t open so early (it was mid afternoon). Great, NOT! Anyways, we walked around and did a bit of shopping since the Christmas sales were on. This mall is huge and we ended up in an amusement park. Yes, it’s inside the mall. Whilst nowhere nearly as big as the Mall of America or West Edmonton mall nor as entertaining for adults, Seacon’s amusement park is geared for the younger kids.

There’s tons of stuff to do here, for kids. Lot’s of kiddie rides, a ball pit, a sand pit, a sled pit (fake ice sledding), a fully padded jungle gym, a train ride that weaves it’s way in and around the “park.” Oh yeah, there aren’t any drop down gates at the crossings so mind your little ones, don’t let them get run over by the train. No carnival games but there were the claw machines and smaller kiddie arcade games. For teenagers, there were only a handful of arcade games, a shooter ride, a mini vking type ride and a bumper boat ride. Yes, bumper boats. I couldn’t, for the life of me, get my teenager to go with me though. As you can see in the images below, the place is kinda deserted albeit it was a Friday afternoon, maybe the local kids are still in school?

I wish shopping trips were as fun as this one. Before I knew it, it was time to make our way to the night market. Although I was unsuccessful in getting my kid to ride/play anything, we did manage buy some dinosaurs to take home to paint. We could have painted them there but not enough time plus the little stools would have killed my back. The only thing I could get her to do with me is catch goldfish but I think she only agreed because she knew we couldn’t take the fish home and so I wouldn’t actually do it. Here’s some more pictures:

As you can see from the photos, there’s lots to do, I’m sure your little ones can find something fun to do here for hours. Just make sure you stock up on tokens from the token machines as they are pretty well spaced apart and hard to find. Oh almost forgot, there’s a small food court with finger food type morsels but no candy apples or mini sugar donuts.

This post has more images than I usually post in hopes to give as much “heads up” to parents with younger kids looking for another place for that oh so important family time. Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

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A couple months into wearing partial dentures, does it really suck?

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Roughly a month into wearing my dentures I sort of got used to them. Even the tediousness of cleaning them. No matter how tired or drunk I am, if I’m still conscious I’d take ’em out and clean them. I know, I know I’m not supposed to sleep with them on but sometimes I just can’t help it, haha. However, I found myself biting harder, gone was the gentle, feeling out the dentures kinda of bite. This is when I started getting a sore spot on the roof of my mouth.

If you want to read about how I got up to this point HERE‘s the post. If you wanna read where I went previously to get the majority of my dental work done, HERE‘s that post.

My theory is that because I was biting things harder, especially foods that break up into hard, smaller bits, like chips, I developed a sore spot on the roof of my mouth where the back edge of the denture’s metal touched the roof of my mouth and the jagged bits sometimes get caught there. Why only there? I have no idea. Anyways, that sore spot soon turned out to be this pimple looking thing. I tried to pop it with a toothpick but it felt hard and didn’t puncture. Great! Luckily, I was heading back to Bangkok to spend Xmas and New Year. In the meantime, I stopped wearing the dentures for a few days to stop the discomfort. Once I couldn’t feel the irritation I put the denture back in and the irritation came back. Maybe I should stop eating Doritos so much, it’s always most irritating when eating those, haha.

I made my appointment (at Bangkok Dental Care) for the first Monday we were there, to coincide with when my dentist would be in and I explained my discomfort to her. She looked puzzled so I showed the her the picture and she said, “ok.” and took the dentures out of my mouth and started sanding/grinding something while telling me that the spot is gone and it doesn’t look injured. Just a bit “more red”, “everything is fine.” After she was finished with the grinding of the metal section of the dentures she assured me that everything would fine and that white spot was just an abscess and shouldn’t happen again. Huh…ok? I guess?! Well that would explain why I only got sore at that one spot.

Well, I have to say, almost a month after her adjustments, nothing weird or uncomfortable has yet to happen and I’ve continued to feast on Doritos! Oh, I almost forgot, I wasn’t charged for services this visit, bonus!

Now to answer the question…Does it suck? For me, wearing them and eating with them on, I’d have to say, “No”, they don’t. Taking care of them, however, I find it tedious and yeah it sucks, lol. I suppose I could use those dissolvable denture cleaner tablet things but that just costs more money, haha.

So the point of this post is to highlight the importance of planning enough time for adjustments after actually using the dentures under a variety of conditions. I guess I lucked out by living close enough to Thailand where dental vacations are still financially feasible even after factoring in airfare and accommodations.

As always, thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

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Plastic casing service for amulets in Bangkok

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Hey y’all ! I know most won’t be interested in this post since it’s about repairing amulets of the Thai / Buddhist variety but I think it would be useful to share some info that I’ve come across in my endeavor to have the casing repaired / replaced on one of my amulets.

So after almost giving up and resolving to have the plastic amulet casing replaced in Singapore at a cost of around $40 SGD. I managed to find a street vendor who’s starting price was $60 BHT. I asked for it to be made stronger than the original cracked casing and I also wanted the new casing to be waterproof. The new cost was $140 BHT (about $6 SGD).

This street vendor is located about an 8 minute walk from On Nut BTS. When you exit On Nut BTS station on the Century The Movie Plaza side and go left (if you’re facing the mall, against the flow of traffic) keep walking until you have to cross the street at an intersection with traffic lights. It’s just after a pedestrian over head bridge. Along the way, you’ll pass a 7-11, a side street with street food vendors, a fire station and a police station where the over head pedestrian crossing is.  After crossing the street turn right. The vendor should be around 20 feet away.

There’s a stool if you want to sit down and wait for your amulet to be re-cased. If not, there’s a Big C shopping mall across the street as well as some street vendors. I chose to wait and the whole process took roughly 20 minutes to make a custom casing from sheet plastic or maybe it’s acrylic, I’m not sure which, lol. I found it extremely fascinating watching the couple work on multiple amulets at the same time. Their process was so well executed and coordinated. Cutting, gluing, molding, sanding and buffing the plastic from a makeshift cart on the side walk. Impressive!

It may not look like it from photos below but the new amulet casing is a lot bigger / thicker and they had polished the black tarnish off the bottom corner.

I had come across a couple of other places, with full casing replacement services while in Bangkok and the best way to get to these two places is via taxi.

Seacon Square – Not too far away from Sukumvit area, maybe around a 15 minute non rush hour drive. Has one jewelry shop that can slightly modify their premade cases.
Address: 55 Srinakarin Road, Nongbon, Prawet, Bangkok 10250

Pantip Plaza Ngamwongwan (NOT the IT Pantip Plaza). It’s kinda far away, around 30 min drive towards Don Mueang Airport. Has a few shops offering casing services.
Address: 69/21, 69/23, Moo 2, Ngam Wong Wan Rd. Bang Khen, Bangkok 11000, Thailand

I didn’t get around to going to Pantip Plaza Ngamwongwan as it was far and I had left it as a last resort, coincidentally I found the street vendor the morning of the day I was planning to go which was the day prior to my flight. Maybe my next trip 😎

If you’re in Singapore and need amulet casing replacement services, check out my post HERE.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

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Siam Amazing Park – Bangkok’s Guinness worthy amusement park

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If you find being swung around in circles repeatedly at speed, then this is the park for you. I was never a fan of the spinning rides. Roller coasters, yes but spinning ones, hell no! Having said that I’ll keep an open mind whilst writing this post/review and let the images do most of the persuading/dissuading for whether or not this park is worth a visit, ok? Oh also keep in mind that I’m comparing this amusement park with the many others I’ve been to and that opinions on the rides are my daughter’s, not mine, haha.

The best way to get to Siam Amazing Park is via taxi because I have no clue how to research which bus, if any, goes there and the BTS/MRT does not go anywhere near there. It’s about a 40 minutes car ride away from Bangkok. My taxi ride cost $220 TBH from On Nut BTS station. Here’s some details you may need:

Address: 203 Suan Siam Rd., Kannayao, Bangkok 10230
Tel: 02-919-7200, 02-105-4294
Website: www.siamamazingpark.com

Our tickets cost $650 TBH each and included a free lunch buffet. The tickets in the picture above are the coffee coupons for $10 TBH off a coffee at the café inside the park. The wristband is the entrance “ticket” and serves as your ticket for the rides as well. We purchased our tickets online while in Bangkok as the prices are a bit cheaper as opposed to buying them online whilst in Singapore because the prices shown was in USD.

The biggest roller coaster is the orange one called ‘the boomerang’. The roller coaster does go 360 and also falls backwards….so don’t wear any glasses, hats or slippers The scary factor according to my kids is 4/10 but keep in mind they are comparing these rides to some of the other major theme park coasters or maybe they didn’t want me to think they’re wimpy.

This ship looking thing is a 360 viking ship ride You will be looked in by a padded bar that will be snug against your belly with just enough room for your thighs. Its kinda tight but you’ll understand why and appreciate it once you’re hanging upside down and the only thing preventing you from plunging head first is that padded bar. Don’t worry, it’s not that drastic, there’s also a metal ‘cage’ above that can serve as ‘handles’ should you need something to hold on to. DO NOT EATING ANYTHING BEFORE GOING ON THIS RIDE, haha.

There is also a drop tower ride but I forgot to take a picture. Nearby, there’s the Grand Canyon Express, which is a smaller ride and then there’s a very small choo choo train. Cool, right? Something for the little kids. Well, maybe not. I didn’t think too much of it but the others thought that the animals are all creepy looking. Further along there’s a hunting scene (hunters and a dead tiger laying on the ground). If that’s not “dark” enough, how about a crucifixion scene (picture below)? These aren’t things, in my opinion, you’d wanna show a 4 yr old kid. In hindsight, I should’ve known this safari ride was going to get dark because right at the beginning there’s a screaming lady that’s being attacked by monkeys.

There’s another roller coaster called The Vortex that looked really cool. It’s the sit in a chair with your feet dangling but it was closed for maintenance. Besides this there’s an ok water log ride, you won’t get wet though. A few other spinning rides pretty much finishes off the grown up rides. There’s a kiddie rides sections that we didn’t go to because my kids said “we’re not kids anymore!”…they grow up so fast!

Other than rides, there are some market like stalls selling souvenir-ish stuff and a haunted house but no carnival games.The food isn’t anything to write home about nor was it bad, since the lunch buffet was free, I have no complaints! As you can tell from the photos, there really weren’t that many people there even though it was a Sunday which was great because lining up for rides in the scorching sun isn’t fun.

Something I wished I had known before going to Siam Amazing Park, is that there is a water park on the premises and has the distinction of being the largest wave pool in the world according to Guinness World Records but we didn’t get around to checking it out nor had we the attire to do so, so sadly, no pictures. The water slides looks like loads of fun too, oh well, maybe next time.

Overall, for me, it was an ok place to spend some family time here even though I’m not a big coaster fan. It would have been more fun for me if there were carnival games or the usual “carnival foods” lol. My kids didn’t find the rides that exciting either (comparing to Disney, Universal, Six Flags etc). I’m guessing that the wave pool probably makes up for a lot though. I bet it’s extremely refreshing on those hot Bangkok days, wait, that’s like every day it’s not raining.😄

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

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Wat Saket is something special. I can’t explain it, only feel it.

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Wat Saket dates back to the 1700’s and has an iconic structure named Golden Mount. This man made mountain has a winding staircase up to the prayer hall where followers can offer prayers, flowers and ask for divine guidance. Climbing up the very narrow and steep stair case to the roof is where you’ll find the golden stupa. The views and statues are really soothing to look at and when the breeze blows through, it feels refreshing and the dinging of all the wind chimes, adds to the ambiance nicely. Although it’s quite spectacular, the rest of the complex is really peaceful and serene too. If you want to see more photos of Golden Mount, you can check out my post HERE. If you need directions on how to get to Wat Saket / Golden Mount via public transport, I posted about that HERE. If you need a break on the way up, there’s a coffee shop on the way up I didn’t have time so I passed, it looks nice though!

I visited Wat Saket 2 days in a row because there was so much going on. It was Loy Krathong, the yearly week long festival (my post about it HERE). With all the festivities going on, I didn’t get any opportunities to get any pictures of the serene feeling premises. Maybe next time. Navigating was somewhat difficult as well because crowds got really big at times and not only were some entrances concealed by the crowds but once you’re in the mass, you really can’t go anywhere except with the flow of the mass. I actually had no idea where I was going and walked around the complex twice before actually getting to see any of the religious statues and things. Some buildings were closed when I got around to them and some I found totally by accident. Meaning I saw a bunch of people moving into something so I just went too. That’s how I found the starting stair case to get up to Golden Mount as well as a cave.

The man made cave houses a giant standing Buddha statue, that looks like it’s carved into the cave and smaller, free standing Terracotta like Buddha statues. Also within the cave are some pieces of really old looking paper with writing on it, but I couldn’t read it, looks important, though.

There is also cemetery that is part of the base of Golden Mount which doesn’t look creepy or anything and you’d probably pass it by not knowing it was a cemetery but look closely and you’ll see. What’s creepy, I think, is that I’m sure I took multiple pictures with my camera’s yet I can’t find any of the cemetery photos on any of them. What do you make of that? Anyways, there’s also a museum on the premises, with some more Buddha statues and history, if you’re interested in that. It was closed by the time I found it.

Then there’s the vultures. If I had not strayed off the path leading down from Golden Mount, I would have totally missed the scene commemorating those that perished from the cholera outbreak. This scene is known as the vulture scene. I took a picture of the commemorative plaque so you can have a read if you’re so inclined.

There’s also a few Buddha statues in enclaves that you can offer prayers too around this area. The main prayer hall isn’t that large but the plaza in front is quite spacious, providing plenty of space for worshipers to pray in front of the Buddha statue that is outside the hall. There’s an even bigger Buddha statue inside the hall. I didn’t get to see everything even though I went twice. I think, during non festive times, you could see it all in 3-4 hours if you’re just walking through. I’ll include a premises map so you can plan your trip 😎

I missed this whole section behind the building in the above photo, it may not even be part of Wat Saket (I think because it’s named a bit different) but it’s accessible from Wat Saket until closing time when the close the entry/exit gates. I think the people having a picnic beside red sign hopped the fence to get in because I didn’t see a way to get in there, lol.

Out of all the wats I’ve visited in Bangkok, Wat Saket is the one that resonated most with me. I “felt” something there, neither good nor bad, just something and for me that’s special. I later learned that there are Buddha relics (Buddha’s Teeth) at Golden Mount, enshrined in the golden stupa and enshrined in the 4 gold leafed statues in the circular shrine. If you need to satisfy your spiritual hunger and only have time to visit one wat in Bangkok, I would highly suggest Wat Saket over the more “touristy” wats. That’s my opinion, don’t roast me for it. 😃

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry.

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