Tips and Tricks : True Love Café

One of the compelling reasons for me to visit Bangkok is to visit this Husky and Malamute dominant café (Well, it portrays more as a dog playground, but we'll get more into that shortly).

The inviting café façade

Getting there, the nearest BTS would either be Ari or Sanam Pao, but by all means they are not *exactly* walking distance (approximately 1.65 km from either stations), highly advisable that you chart a taxi or a tuk tuk for to go this street called Soi Ari Samphan 2 (it is located in a housing area, and the street is a long stretch towards a dead end, so no short cuts if you are thinking of attempting one)

Bro Tips : There are allocated slots for each sessions; 1230 and 1530 Tuesdays to Sundays, and an additional slot of 1830 on weekends (subject to weather conditions as well).

Be there slightly before the allocated slots, as they do charge per entry - 350 bahts per person. Before entering they also requested that you fill in a questionnaire, one question in particular bothers me - "Any of your pet have recently deceased?". Not too sure if they are trying to detect if the guest are having Post Pet-loss Depression, Bringer of Animal Disease or Animal Sadist (If you know the reason do enlighten me as I didn't ask the owners the reason).

The cover charge entitles you to one dessert, one drink, and of course the interaction experience with the dog. It will be unjust to fully review on their dishes because frankly I (and I am pretty sure 95% of the guests at that time) only tried out their dessert (a choice of cake or ice cream cake) and a drink. Was not impressed with either one of them, but hey, we're here for the dogs.

So I was told that the dogs are only released (from their air conditioned rooms - Bangkok can be ridiculously hot) at 4pm during the 3.30pm time slot, which gives diners ample time to eat/drink before the interaction. The café is extremely particular about hygiene and guests have to follow the house rules diligently or they can be denied interaction with the dogs.

After donning and unflattering, disposable blue footwear, and sanitizing our hands, we were greeted at the enclosure just outside the café. One of the staff laid the house rules again and briefed us on how to interact with the dogs.

Bro Tips :
i) The Huskies are not exactly the most obedient breed. Photographing them could impose a challenge.

ii) Chasing the dogs will only tire yourself. So just wait for the next available, stationary dog for your selfie or photo opportunity.

In the enclosure there are three sections, mainly designed to separate the dogs that do not fancy each other that much (high school much?).

Unfortunately for me I couldn't stay for the dog stampede back to their air conditioned rooms for dinner (it'll be great for those phones in slow-mo mode to capture them) because I was chasing time to hit to the airport, but if you are staying on the whole run, do remember to get your gizmos ready. 

Bro Tips : Getting out of the café towards the airport could be a little bit of a challenge.
i) Walk - Not exactly near to Ari station, but walkable if you don't mind the heat.

ii) Tuk tuk - There won't be as much ready-to-ride tuk tuk available as this café is pretty secluded, but the staffs would be more than glad to call one for you (Just get ready around 50 baht, that should suffice).

True Love Cafe
153 Soi Ari Samphan 2, Samsen Nai, Phaya Thai, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Opens Tuesday to Sunday, 1230-1430, 1530-1730 (additional slot of 1830-2030 on weekends)

Tips and Tricks : Chatuchak Weekend Market

It is probably the unofficial mandatory thing to do for those visiting Bangkok for the first time to go to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. 

Chatuchak (Thai : จตุจักร), often known as JJ market houses a ridiculous amount of more than 8000 stalls, and you can basically buy almost anything you need (or don't need but buyer's impulse tells you otherwise). 

Chatuchak's famous Coconut Ice Cream - Remedy for broken heart and hot weather

Bro Tips : Chatuchak market is divided into 27 sections, plan well for what you want to buy and you should be able to find what you want.

Map of Chatuchak Market, intimidating right?
Image from chatuchak.org

Categories according to Sections. Save this in your phone. You're welcome.
Source : bangkok.com

Getting to Chatuchak is no rocket science, but it pays to know where to stop exactly if you are taking the BTS or the MRT. Taxi drivers would most likely stop you at one of the small exits and you can navigate based on your JJ market map from there.

Bro Tips:

Via BTS - Get down at Mo Chit station, follow the horde of people, 95% of them are most likely going to the JJ market.

Via MRT - Get down at Kamphaeng Phet, where you will alight at the middle of the market

It could be terribly scorching towards the afternoon, therefore if you can, try to be there during the opening time of most of the stalls (say 9 a.m.). Of course, the basic checklist before going for any activities where you will be exposed to the sunlight most of the time - Wear comfy clothes and shoes, sunblock optional, and equip yourself with a bottle of water to stay hydrated. 

Paella in Thailand

Never the less, the abundance of food and beverage stalls means you can always grab a fresh bottle of orange juice or beer along your labyrinth journey. Don't forget to try the local som tam (papaya salad), grilled seafood and my personal favorite, the coconut ice cream (I can't find the same tasting ice cream back here in Malaysia, well impressed).

Somehow find myself addicted to the orange juice here. Behind, DuckCafe sounds like cute clothing line

The range of cheap clothes and affordable souvenirs here simply mean that you should not go home empty handed, heck even a non-regular shopper like myself found myself buying at least three t-shirts here (average 150 baht, MYR 15)

Wish that these are found in our pasar malam 

Hand made Thai soaps

Note that the shops here are open on weekends (9 a.m. till around 6 p.m.) and selected shops (plants etc) opens on Friday evening (6 p.m. till late). If I were to revisit my weekend here, I would go there earlier and solely focus here for half a day, this is a bargainer's playground and the plethora of food here makes this place a foodie's haven too.

Bro Tips : You can also slot some time for some good food massages here. And Thailand being Thailand, they are affordable for your hourly rate. 

'Some' loots from the Weekend Market. :P

Discovering Bandung : Craters (Tangkuban Perahu & Kawah Putih)

Bandung is geographically located on a river basin & surrounded by volcanic mountains, and it has cooler climates compared to other cities in Indonesia, which is why one should visit the natural crater wonders when in Bandung aside from the infamous factory outlet shoppings. 

Arguably the more notable kawah (craters) that became Bandung's major attraction are Kawah Ratu & Kawah Domas, located at Tangkuban Perahu, 25km north and Kawah Putih, located at Ciwidey, 50km south of Bandung city. Two vastly different attraction - and I will share which one I preferred and which one you can probably skip.

The Nay

Due to the logistics and location factors of both craters (Tangkuban Perahu and Kawah Putih), it is advisable to slot both visits on separate days. Question is, if you HAD to choose one crater experience, which one to choose? 

Tangkuban Perahu (Translate: Upturned Boat, namesake of the local legend of Sangkuriang) is rather remote from the Bandung city itself, it is advisable to chart a personal driver to transport you (and your crew) to Tangkuban Perahu and back. 

Now, if your driver were to drive you up to the Kawah Ratu lookout point (on a weekday), it will incur a cost of IDR 25,000 (MYR 7.60) per vehicle on top of the entrance fee of IDR 200,000  (MYR 61) for foreigners. The rates are rather ridiculous as weekends rate are inflated to IDR 300,000 (MYR 90.90) for foreigners.

$ Current Expenditure : IDR 625,000 for three visitors.

Bro Tips : Be Indonesian, the entrance fee is only IDR 20,000 (MYR 6.05)

The Kawah Ratu Crater

The elevated lookout point will give you a view of Kawah Ratu, a scene that looks like where the spaceship from Krypton has crashed on. At approximately 11am, the place is mostly swarmed with more peddlers than tourists, which is fine by me. What is not, is that a licensed guide (based on his badge credential) kept following us persistently and without giving us an option of accepting or declining his service in the first place.

Overlooking Kawah Domas

After giving us a quick history of Tangkuban Perahu and Kawah Ratu, he persuaded us to visit Kawah Domas as well. Since Kawah Domas was in our to-go list, we didn't mind him being our guide (with administrative fee of IDR100,000 - MYR 30 per person). 

$ Current Expenditure : IDR 925,000 for three visitors.

Bro Tips : Just like Poker, it's best that you fold when your hands are going down south.

The legendary tree found en route to Kawah Domas

All is not lost as the guide is pretty informative and 'helpful' in taking pictures for us etc while walking us through the downhill path to Kawah Domas. I don't exactly categorize the path as dangerous or challenging, the challenge is that you have prying eyes from the guide's 'henchmen' who appears midway during our walk and head towards Kawah Domas. The guide mentioned that they will be giving us free feet mud massage down there, with no charge (that's where I started to get a bad vibe, free? Free?)

Mud Spa

Once we have reached Kawah Domas, the henchmen then gave us a pretty decent feet massage, take it as a mud spa treatment. The trick comes RIGHT after that, the henchmen/masseur then transformed into peddlers, and started to persuade us to buy keychains and magnets, for exuberant price of IDR 400,000 (RM 121) for 4 magnets or 10 keychains (and that is also due to the fact that we are Malaysians, their neighbors, and we got that deal that we simply can't refuse, according to them. Other foreigners they mark the price up to IDR 600,000). 

You CAN choose not to buy, I gave them a gratuity of IDR 200,000 for the foot massage given, and not so much for the souvenir (they claimed that it was made by the volcanic rocks, hmmm). My two other friends were duped persuaded and they bought souvenirs worth IDR 600,000 and IDR 400,000 respectively.

$ Current Expenditure : IDR 1,925,000 for three visitors.

After the mud massage, and posing at the hot pools that can boil eggs (was not in the mood for cooking, so we skipped that), we then proceeded with a slight ascend back at the jungle trail to the exit of Kawah Domas. But of course, the ka-ching did not stop there. The guide expected us to give a gratuity for his service. Tipping is an Indonesian culture for sure, but we gave in anyway since we felt that he was informative and helpful enough.

$ Current Expenditure : IDR 2,125,000 for three visitors.

Almost boiled my other eggs

Two craters, and we have raked out almost MYR 215 per person, just for this trip. If you are generous enough to contribute to Bandung's economy, I more than welcome that idea. But this, to us, is simply not worth the trip here (not to mention the 4 hours to and fro journey from Bandung city).

The Yay

On the contrary to Tangkuban Perahu, the entrance fee for three (IDR 50,000 per foreign visitors) plus the car entrance fee (IDR 6,000) only costed us IDR 156,000 for Kawah Putih (Translate : White Crater). That was all we spent.

A short walk trailing the horde of visitors, we reached the turquoise sulphuric lake, surrounded with white shores and mists. We were in awe of this other realm, postcard worthy scenery. Aside from notable sulphur scent, this is definitely a better visit compared to Domas and Ratu.  Of course, you don't get any 'free' massages here, but there are plenty peddlers that are selling souvenirs here as well, and as always, buy only if you feel like buying - no obligations.

Kawah Putih is located in Ciwidey, a quaint market town that also not shy of attractions such as river rafting, strawberry farms and a breathtaking waterfall named Curug Citambur. If you are not in a hurry or if you are bunking near Ciwidey, you can definitely spend a whole day discovering Ciwidey and its vicinity.

We may not have covered the other attractions but there are other photo worthy places that you can target here, such as the tea plantation...

or the Ranca Upas deer enclosure...

Deers at Ranca Upas

and even an abandoned railway track that used to link Bandung and Ciwidey. Much to see, too little time.

This is just an opinionated entry of mine, after all a little balance in ups and downs during travel makes the trip more memorable, no?