A Pokemon Go Trainer in Bangkok

Food at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport has been generally expensive; breakfast could easily be higher than 300 Baht in the arrival and departure areas. The prices in the international zone were even higher. For budget travelers, there was another choice, the Airport Street Food: Magic Food Court. The food court was located on the first floor, near the exit no. 8 which was at the far end of the terminal. The entrance was small and quite easy to be looked over. The place was operated as in a department store food court. Customers had to buy coupons which came in a book worth 100 Baht. The unused coupons had to be redeemed on the day. There were selections of Thai street foods from many well-known vendors. I thought the taste was alright but not particularly impressed. The food was priced somewhat higher than street food stalls, but comparable to prices in shopping malls. The budget for a meal could be easily kept under 100 Baht. Concerning the Pokemon GO, there was no Gym n...

Thais are very big on eatings. There had been hosts of restaurant and hotel buffet reviews around. This blog was not particularly into this category due to my ineptitude in photo-taking. If you wish to see the photos, please follow the provided external link. The Espresso has been a restaurant in the InterContinental Bangkok in the shopping district of Ratchaprasong. It offered breakfast, lunch, and dinner international buffets. The menu included appetizer, salad, bread, sushi, dim sum, soup, pasta, rice dishes, noodles, seafood, and roasted beef, etc. For desserts, there was a good selection of cakes, pudding, ice cream and fruits, followed by hot chocolate, tea or coffee with occasional late arts. There was no cheese platter, though. In short, it had all the trapping of buffets in a 5-star hotel. For Pokemon Go trainers, this restaurant had an added bonus; it practically situated on a Pokemon gym. To be precise, the gym was located at a statue in front of the hotel, abo...

Japanese food has been trendy in Thailand. In some trendy shopping mall, there were more Japanese restaurants than Thai ones. A recent addition was a confectionery shop Tokyo Sweets. The menu included strawberry daifuku, mochi cream, mochiese, mizu suishyo mochi, and tiramisu. One of the signature sweet, Mochi Mochi (seal pup-shaped mochi), were so very cute and reminded me of the seel Pokemon. The skin colors indicated the filling - white for red beans, pale pink for raspberry or strawberry and pale lavender for sweet potatoes. There was a new chocolate bear which was similar to seals but had legs. These adorable seal pup mocha are well-accepted. When the shops were reviewed, there were inevitably video clips about the pup murdering methods, usually biting or clean cutting from the head or tail. For me, they were very popular as gifts and presents to children and ladies. There were Tokyo Sweet shops and counters in several department stores, e.g. Siam Paragon, Isetan...

The Pokemon Go Berries are items that helped trainers to catch the monster easier and increase Gym Defenders’ motivation. First, only the grape-like Razz Berries were available. Then came the Golden Razz Berries, which were more effective, as rewards from Gym Raids. The banana-like Nanab Berries slowed down the movement of wild monsters while the pineapple-like Pinap Berry doubled the rewarding candies. All Thai trainers I met called these berries as berries, golden berries, banana (กล้วย, kluay) and pineapple (สัปปะรด, sap-pa-rod), respectively. Interestingly, none called the Razz Berries grapes (องุ่น, a-ngun), maybe because the pronunciation required more effort. Anyway, the introduction of the Nanab Berries really helped the catching of fast-moving Pokemon, particularly the Zubats which flapped wings so fast that I sometimes got dizzy from just staring. The act of feeding bananas to bats had very much amused me because of the name. There are two Thai classical tunes ...

It was said that Pokemon Go started as an April's Fool joke in 2013. The Google Maps' Pokemon Challenge YouTube clips was really impressive and imaginative by any measure. What a wonderful joke that became reality. It was said that Pokemon Go started as an April's Fool joke in 2013. The Google Maps' Pokemon Challenge YouTube clip was really impressive and imaginative by any measure. What a wonderful joke that became a reality. It was said that Pokemon Go started as an April's Fool joke in 2013. The Google Maps' Pokemon Challenge YouTube clip was really impressive and imaginative by any measure. What a wonderful joke that became a reality. While the April Fool's Day was not a traditional Thai custom, Thais have been known to readily accept all sanook (fun) traditions as excuses for parties. I sometimes felt like reeling from one Thai/Western/Chinese festivals to another. Western New Year, Children Day, Valentine Day, Chinese New Year, Qingm...

Songkran Festival (สงกรานต์) between 13-15 April celebrated the traditional Thai new year. For this year, I would like to describe how Bangkokian trainers actually spent time on this long holiday from 12 to 16 April 2018. Before Songkran, the government announced the rules for the festival, namely (1) proper dress, (2) no alcohol, (3) water only, no ice, foam or powder, (4) no high-pressure water gun, (5) no indecent behavior or dance, (6) the traditionally conformed extra activities, (7) specific time for water fight and (8) no sitting in the cargo bed of pickup trucks when traveling in main roads, and (9) no water splashing on the road as it might cause traffic accidents. I personally agreed with the rules on safety to keep the rambunctiousness in check. In reality, these rules were not universally observed. With the boisterous mood, Songkran was the most dangerous time of the year. The dedicated Songkran Traffic Accident Prevention Center announced that during the Seven...