Bangkok Part 5 : Naaz, Haroon Village and Home.

Posted: April 15th, 2009 | Author: faddy | Filed under: Travel | Comments Off

Knowing that we had not much time left on our last day due to our flight leaving around 6pm, the four of us woke up pretty early (by our standards hehe) and ventured outside on our own. Before we flew over, I already had it in mind that I wanted to try eating at Naaz Restaurant and then explore Haroon Village, so I managed to convince the rest to do just that :)

From LubD we could actually walk to the restaurant (which is more like a coffeeshop hehe), but because we all can’t be arsed and Anz and I are still pretty unwell, we cabbed down. I think, if one does not have a map and a good sense of direction, it will be pretty hard to find as it is pretty tucked away. Even with an exact address, our cabbie got a bit lost finding the restaurant.

But gosh, the food was worth it! The chicken briyani was YUM, and it had a different taste then the briyanis in Singapore. The naan was so milky and mmmmm so sedap! The only thing we did not like here was the Teh Susu, which, according to the guys, tasted like milky plain water haha!

Anyway, the food’s pretty cheap and the whole price list is pasted on the wall so the owners cannot (and will not, I guess?) dupe tourists like us :) Two YAYS for that!

Once we made payment, the rain started to fall again but in mere drizzles so we stubborn-headedly continued with our plans to seek out Haroon Village. As we exited the soi which Naaz was located at, we had to make a decision in turning left or right. Seeing a signboard which wrote “Haroon Mosque” pointing to the left, I of course practically said we should go left.

This YayaPapaya above however, insisted that we should go right and kept pointing to the map and saying “You don’t trust me ah? Who’s better at directions? Me or you?” OKLOR.

20 minutes later, we ended up at a dead end in a pouring rain with a Thai who could not speak a word of English hahaha. Pantat you ah, Bie! So we spent a few more minutes just waiting for the rain to dwindle a bit, and finally I asked a Muslim roadside stall owner for directions.

Yes, turn left *smiles smugly*. (Ok lah, actually 99.99% of the time Haikal’s ace in directions but I guess that day was the 0.01% of the time he cocked up hahaha)

We thus walked and walked and took more photos, and finally ended up at Haroon Village. It was just a small sleepy area with kids running about, senior citizens peeking at us from their half-opened doors, and cats rubbing against our legs.

If not for the rain which decided to go all out, I am sure we would have had more opportunities to explore, but we ended up getting stuck in a corner as the villages smiled in amusement. Friendly people, the Thais are :)

Seeing that the time for us to leave is drawing near, we cabbed back to LubD and spent some time just watching tuk-tuks zoom past as the rain continued pelting the Land of Smiles. I found it terribly cute when this old Thai lady actually stopped and asked US for directions to the nearest sky train, and we could actually give her the way like a pro.

Can become Thais already man :P

Thus ends the adventure of four in Bangkok, and I must say that I am thankful every second that we went Bangkok a week before the whole politics brouhaha started happening. Due to the Songkhran (Thai new year) festivities, I was actually pushing to be in Bangkok then (the peak of the riots) so as to enjoy the water festivities but because Qiey could not get any leaves, we had to go the week before.

Every time I read the news, I would drop a prayer of thanks for the series of events that led us to be at Bangkok safe and sound, Alhamdulillah. Mum keeps saying she will lose her head worrying if I had gone during this troubled period :)

All in all, I definitely enjoyed the trip to Bangkok, though I regret that we went during a time when rain was in extra abundance (rained heavily daily). I would definitely return for another round of shopping! Sesungguhnya $300 is SO not enough wakakaka!

And yes, thanks Qiey, Anz and Bie for making the trip a damn memorable and fun one for me :) I think the four of us click very well due to all our looniness. Bali at the end of the year, homies!

Next trip? Vietnam in 2 weeks… just 3 of us girls. Let’s see how exciting THAT will be hehe.