BKK: Cabbages & Condoms
Let me start with a little background of this restaurant and how the founder came out with such a brilliant idea combining dining together with condoms :).
The Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was established in part to support the programs funded by the Population and Community Development Assosiation (PDA) of Thailand. PDA is one of Thailand's most well established and diverse non-government organisations that operates a wide variety of programs designed to serve and assist the rural poor of Thailand. These programs cover diverse activities as free casectomies, forest replanting schemes, industry relocation into rural areas, mobile health clinics, environmental education programs and many more.
PDA's programs are based on the belief that local people are best suited to shape and sustain their own development. As such, the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was founded to support the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. Apart from offering excellent food, the restaurant also promotes the health and safety aspects of condom use in a fun and amusing manner inline with the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. The restaurant incomes help fund population control, AIDS awareness, and a host of rural development programs and from there it comes with such a strange name.
At the entrance, a Santa Claus and two young ladies made of condoms were welcoming us :p!
The Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was established in part to support the programs funded by the Population and Community Development Assosiation (PDA) of Thailand. PDA is one of Thailand's most well established and diverse non-government organisations that operates a wide variety of programs designed to serve and assist the rural poor of Thailand. These programs cover diverse activities as free casectomies, forest replanting schemes, industry relocation into rural areas, mobile health clinics, environmental education programs and many more.
PDA's programs are based on the belief that local people are best suited to shape and sustain their own development. As such, the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was founded to support the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. Apart from offering excellent food, the restaurant also promotes the health and safety aspects of condom use in a fun and amusing manner inline with the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. The restaurant incomes help fund population control, AIDS awareness, and a host of rural development programs and from there it comes with such a strange name.
At the entrance, a Santa Claus and two young ladies made of condoms were welcoming us :p!
Yet another super hero model made of condom being displayed next to the staircase, Marvel's Condom Hero?
The restaurant was designed with a tropical garden with outdoor dining tables. It was designed in such a cozy and romantic ambiance that makes it an excellent place for dining with the one you love :)!
Apart from the cozy environment, they do offer some very good food too. Let's check out the food we ordered that evening :).
1. Tom Yum Kung (Thai style spicy shrimp soup)
2. Honey roasted chicken.
3. Braised mixed vegetables.
Everything together cost around RM70. The price is rather reasonable as the food served were very big portion.
I kinda like the place for it's nice and cozy environment and friendly staff. The food tasted quite good as well and in very big portion. The experience was a real special one for me as I bet you won't find another place where you can dine and have some condoms as your free gift! I highly recommend this place to you not only for the good food they are serving but you are also helping the Thai people as the money you spent here will help to fund the programs founded by PDA!
Ayu's Farewell
I started to notice 2 weeks ago why my team suddenly became so quiet in the office. It was really unusual given that we used to be the noisiest, playful and most happening team in the office. But everything seems to be quite normal. We started a new sprint, we attended sprint planning and had our picnic there and as usual we play pool at 5:30pm. When I was seating at my cubicle, I do feel that something amiss but could not tell what was wrong. Deep withing, I was anticipating for something but was not able to tell what it is. Maybe something that comes in a tone of ~~ Ayam Goreng? But why, am I too hungry so I have a hallucination of fried chicken?
Yet another day, I was sitting on my chair concentrating and busy typing on my keyboard. It was so quiet that morning and apart from my busy boss, everyone seems to be just concentrating on their work. As of the old time, there used to be someone knocking me from the back, pulling my chair trying to distract me from my work. There used to be someone who will start a conversation among the team and give everyone a precious moment to be distracted from the never ending work to relax so not to be so stressed up with the stupid system.
Sigh, is this an early sign of memory loss disease? Or am I really a brain damage like what others used to call me? Hmm... I was thinking to myself. I know something is not usual. I can sense that everyone in the team was upset for something and I can tell from their face that they are missing someone.
Oh yeah, right! Now I know what it is. Someone who used to be the cheer leader in the team, who used to be the kedai koperasi head and who used to be the one with lots of smiles left the team. It was you~lah, Masnizarahayu Rosle - "betrayer"! :p
Yea, it was Ayu's farewell dinner about a month ago. I was not around on her last day in the office as I was on leave enjoying my holidays at Bangkok. I remember that she first joined the company around January 2009 and used to be the first batch together with Kim and I who started to work on BPA. She started off as a GT and eventually got promoted to GTA!
My mind started to playback like a DVD player on those memorable moments we had together in the team, going through up and down with the project and most importantly we really had fun together working as a team. Now that she had left the team too after Kim. I started to feel a bit lonely as they both used to be my best buddies in the office :).
But anyway, here I really wish her good luck and all the best on her new job. Stop Facebook~ing in the office and concentrate on work okay :)! Else I will make boss to call you up and give you another round of "lecture" :p! Thank you mate for all the good moments we shared last year together in the team!
BKK: T&K Seafood @ Yaowarat
We arrived at Yaowarat by ferry from pier 13 (off Khao San road) around 5 pm in the late afternoon. Yaowarat - Bangkok's Chinatown, centered on Th Yaowarat and Th Charoenkrung, is an easy walk from Hualamphong Station and the Si Phraya Express Boat pier 5 (near River City shopping mall). Our purpose of visiting the Chinatown is not for touristy shopping or sight seeing. Shopping is not particularly rewarding at Yaowarat as most of the shops along the street were selling food or gold. So for average travelers like us, our focus would be solely on food!
As of our last visit to Yaowarat, we had been to a very famous seafood restaurant which is serving simple, fresh, tasty southern-Chinese recipes and the best seafood in the area. The restaurant was named T&K. For many, this is one of the best seafood restaurant at Chinatown given with their reasonable price and the quality of food they serve.
T&K Seafood Restaurant from outside! You can see from the picture that so many staff were preparing seafood outside the restaurant as they were char grilling seafood like shrimps and crabs!
T&K restaurant from inside. There is nothing much to look at to be honest but it would be a BIG mistake to be deterred by the rough interior. It is all about the food and brisk service in T&K!
The menu:
Dishes that we ordered that evening:
1. Char-grilled fresh shrimps (~200 baht).
2. Char-grilled escargots (~200 baht):
3. Claypot crab with glass noodle (~220 baht).
Bon appetite!
The dinner cost us 680 baht in total, roughly RM70 for 2 drinks and 3 dishes served with rice. It was one of the best meals I had in Bangkok really. The seafood were so fresh and it is best to just lightly char-grilled them and serve. Yummy, yummy! This is the restaurant I would highly recommend to you guys if you are a seafood lover!
T&K Seafood Restaurant
Cuisine: Seafood
Address: 49-51 Soi Phadung Dao, Yaowarat Rd. (corner Thong Suphan No. 453)
View Larger Map
Tel: +66 (0) 2 223- 4519
Opening Hours: 16:30-02:00
BKK: Khao San Road, The Backpacker's Wonderland
I remember people keep reckoning to me to Khao San Road at Bangkok. I can't recall of how many travel books or forums I had read before was highlighting about Khao San. So what is Khao San all about when it was called the backpacker's paradise at Bangkok? So during my visit to Bangkok this time, I am about to discover by myself what kind of a place it is :).
Destination:
Elaine and I headed off to Khao San road early in the morning on our third day in Bangkok. As there is some distance from Sukhumvit to Khao San road and there is no easy public transport there, we decided to catch a taxi there. We waived for a taxi right outside our hostel and told there driver to take us to Khao San. We were told that it is pretty jam on that morning, so he asked us to be patient while he is going to take us there in the shortest time he could. I was leaving him to drive me there as I was totally without any idea how to get there :p.
Just as what he told us, it was pretty jam on that morning. We were stuck half way through to Khao San nearby Petchaburi Road. As I was not in a rush and the driver seems to be pretty honest one as his meter was not running fast like running tap, I was taking my time observing the daily life of the locals by the road side :). Although it was still early in the morning, the place was full of life with crowded people. Our driver squeezing out way through the jammed road and finally got us there at Khao San after some 30 minutes. It was pretty amazing that the fare was only 110 Baht! Pretty cheap right? I truly believe that the right working attitude is implanted in these Thai people in doing their daily business, being honest and without going through short cut by cheating on the tourists! Wake up our fella taxi drivers, please don't make riding taxi an expensive transport in Malaysia!
So let's come back to Khao San. Khao San Road is a short street in central Bangkok, Thailand. It is located in the Banglamphu area of (Phra Nakhon district) about 1 km north of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. "Khaosan" translates as "milled rice", a reminder that in former times the street was a major Bangkok rice market.
The first business to open on Khao San Road was a small hotel aimed at serving civil servants from the provinces who came to Bangkok on business. In the last 20 years, however, Khaosan Road has developed into a world famous "backpacker ghetto". It offers cheap accommodation, ranging from 'mattress in a box' style hotels to reasonably priced 3-star hotels.
Backpackers from around the globe used to gather at Khao San road and make it their default stop in Bangkok, Thailand before making their next stop to other south-east asean countries. Accommodations, shoppings and restaurants serving international cuisines are available along the road.
Along the street, both sides of it were all packed with stalls selling touristy stuff like souvenir tees, branded beg replicas, art and craft items and many more! Elaine and I were busy doing some shopping around as the touristy stuff we found there were so much different from those we can find from other local markets like Pratunam and Suan Lum market. Apart from that, there were some stalls selling local food which were superb tempting to me. The one that we got was a freshly fried fish cake from a stall which was at the back alley of Khao San road. The snacks cost 20 baht for a big plate of it. The fish cakes were superb fresh and it was best to be eaten while it's still hot! Together it was dressed with some special thai chilly sauce, a perfect bite!
Soon, we got tired of shopping as the sun was so hot. We headed for lunch at one of the "well-known" restaurant at Khao San - Tom Yum Kung. It was a highly rated restaurant at Khao San which was famous for it's thai cuisines. But to our disappointment, the food they served that afternoon was awful =_=". Well famous not necessarily means good :). After lunch, Elaine and I went for a body massage shop at Trok Mayom (a back alley off Khao San road).
The rate for a full Thai body massage was amazingly low @ 180 Baht for an hour! It is definitely a good choice to spend an hour or two here relaxing and enjoy a full Thai body massage! It will definitely make your day one of the best time of your stay in Bangkok! :) I highly recommend this place!
We were done with our body massage around 3:30 pm. As there was nothing much to discover more about the place, we left and headed off to the nearest pier to catch a public ferry to Yaowarat (Chinatown), our next stop for Seafood dinner :).
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