Cabbages and Condoms

"Oh by the way, I had dinner at Cabbages and Condoms", one of my friends told me. Cabbages and what?! Yes, I heard right. And no, it was not any of those sleazy places in Bangkok.

Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant owned by a non-government organization (Population and Community Development Association). The restaurant both aims to provide financial support for the programs implemented by PDA as well as promotes the use of condoms for family planning. 

A very unique restaurant, C and C is artistically decorated with condoms, such as this:

Dressed in colorful condoms.

Walls, trees and lamps are likewise bedecked with..of course..condoms.

There are air conditioned rooms, but we opted to sit in the open air area when we visited. They serve mostly Thai food and I specially enjoyed #76 Pla Ka Pong Nueng Ma Nao (or steamed whole sea bass with chilli, lemons and vegetales). Complete set of menu, including prices (in Thai Baht) can be found in this link.

With my friends Rino, Fer and the yummy sea bass...

To support a good cause and for a good dinner, I will recommend Cabbages and Condoms any time. 

But hey, they do not give out free after-dinner mints.. only after-dinner condoms.

Cabbages and Condoms is located at 10 Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok.

Floating Market at the 75th Floor

Ever been to a floating market? What about a floating market at the 75th floor of a building?

The Baiyoke Floating Market, is located on the 75th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.  The restaurant recreated the "Siamese bygone days" and life as they knew it. They have a wide selection of Thai and international dishes displayed on boats. 

I enjoyed tremendously all the seafood dishes , the Pad Thai (or the stir fried rice noodle) , and of course the varied dessert selection.

Thai food galore.

Desserts,desserts!

Souvenir items are also available for sale.

Keepsakes!

The fee includes both the buffet at the Baiyoke Floating Market as well as the Observatory Point at the 84th floor.  The revolving view point will give a 360 degree view of Bangkok. Which is quite nice...especially at night.

A very interesting dinner...and we all had fun.  It was a good night.

Baiyoke Floating Market is located at:

Baiyoke Sky Hotel, 222 Ratchaprarop Rd. Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand

Telephone:: 66 2656 3000

Exploring Ayutthaya

 We were in the mood for some cultural exploration. Ayutthaya , the ancient capital of Thailand, and one of  the "World Cultural Heritage"-s , was our next destination

Only 45 minutes from Bangkok on a minibus, it was an easy (and cheap) trip.  When we reached Ayutthaya, a tuktuk driver approached us and offered a tour for the whole day, to 9 tourist places. 550 Baht per person sounded good enough (on hindsight we could have just rented bikes since the places were quite close to each other, except for the 2 temples).

Our first stop was the Wat Maha That, which was constructed in 1374 AD. It was said to be a royal monastery. Wat means monastery or temple, in Thai language.

At the Wat entrance

The big Buddha and the countless small headless Buddha figures -or "Buddhitas"- as my
 Spanish speaking friend calls them

Our second stop was the elephant ride...which I will never ever ever do again.  I dislike how the Mahot (or the trainor) treats the elephant and will never understand the need to constantly hit them with stick close to the ear! The ride made me sick.

Adorable creatures - in a cruel industry

Our third stop was the golden Buddha image known as Phra Mongkonbophit. It was located pretty close to the first wat we visited. It was surprising to see a number of monks, not on their knees, praying to their Buddha , but were instead very busy taking digital pictures. 

Me at the entrance of the Wat housing the Buddha

My friend Fer and the monk photographers

The Wat Phrasisanphet was our next stop- which was right beside the Phra Mongkonbophit. It was the former location of the royal palace in 1350 AD but a wat was built on the site in 1448 AD, which became the royal chapel.

Behind me are pagodas (chedis) which houses the remains of an ancient king
and his brother

Our next stop was my favorite among all the temples in Ayutthaya--the Wat Chaiwatthanaram. The locals call it Thailand's Angkor Wat (a very famous and grand temple in Cambodia).  Chaiwatthanaram is an ancient monastery established in 1630 AD.

As grand an entrance as can be

Our nth stop is the 37 meter long Buddha image called Phra Buddhasaiyart, where Buddhist offer prayers and flowers, and light their incense sticks.

Last stop was the Wat Phu Khao Thong-which was quite a climb but will give you a very nice view of Ayutthaya at the top.

What? Me? Climb? Nooooo!

And that concludes our Ayutthaya exploration.

Note to self: No temple visits again for the next 3 years. I had enough today to last me that. 

  

A Day in Beach Garden Cha Am

I badly needed a break in June, as one would after a grueling first half of the year.  And since I have a workshop in Thailand at that time, and my Ecuadorian friend is coming over for my workshop, we made arrangement for a pre-workshop vacation.

We wanted to see the beach.  Phuket was out of the question because June is a stormy month and storms usually affect Phuket, as warned by our Thailand office security officer. We had to settle for places closer to Bangkok so we went for Hua Hin/Cha am-for some beach getaway and Ayutthaya , for some cultural exploration.  

Having did our research before travelling, we know our way-well, kind of. The mini bus station is located in Victory Monument, which can be reached via the BTS (train). Coming from Asok station, the terminal is at the left side exit of the Victory Monument station (Exit 2), right beside Century Cinema Mall. There are different booths for each destination- most are written in Thai. Luckily , the Hua Hin/Cha-am booth is in English.  

The booths at the mini bus terminal

We paid for our fare, got our ticket for 180 Baht each, and got confused :-D.  We were asked to wait for the minibus on one side-but it did take some time and the lady does not speak English. 

my "confused" friend

When the minibus finally came, we were expecting to board first since we were the first in the queue..which did not happen. So we ended up getting the most undesirable seat at the back-beside the luggages. It was however a fun 2.5 hours ride, with us talking all the way- which could probably have annoyed the other passengers. :)

We finally reached Hua Hin- and looked for a place to eat before boarding a taxi to Beach Garden Cha-am.  

Street food!

We reached the Beach Garden resort- and since we were booked for the cheapest room, we got the garden view, not the beach view..which kinda sucks because we went there for the beach. And so..we rushed to the beach, not wanting to miss the fun. And it was a clean, very nice beach...better than the beach at Amari Hua Hin hotel, where I was in March.

So nice that we stayed on until its dark...and had our Amarula drink, which came all the way from Africa. We had fun catching up, enjoying the wind and the sea, and trying to catch some pictures of lightning just for the heck of it.

And then it was dinner time at beach garden's restaurant.  We called it a day after dinner. We realized how badly we needed to rest.

Early morning was for catching the sunrise..we were surprised to see a bunch of young kids racing to the beach to do the same thing.  

Had quick breakfast, some time at the beach, a dip in the pool and then were off again to Bangkok to get ready for our Ayutthaya adventure the next day.

Casa Santa at Jardin de Miramar

It always feels like Christmas whenever I spend time with my nephew- more so when it is spent in a place where it is Christmas everyday. 

Casa Santa is, at most, 15 minutes away from my house yet it took me ten years before I paid my first visit. It was an old family house in Jardin de Miramar, an event place in Antipolo.

Casa Santa houses a collection of more than 3,000 Santa Clause-s. You will see Santa of all sizes, and of all forms. There is elf Santa, girl Santa, stick Santa, glass Santa, ceramic Santa, skiing Santa, reading Santa, Santa descending from the roof, and many more.  

My favourite was the cool Santa in the toilet. My nephew's was the Christmas village in one of the rooms. The miniature Christmas Village looked like a real one,  the details well taken cared of that it did look like a small town on a snowy night.

There is an entrance fee for the Casa Santa , as well as a minimum number of persons. The website says a minimum of 10 is required but the girl let us in even if there were only a 4 of us.  

Casa Santa is located at :
Jardin de Miramar
276 San Jose Extension
San Isidro, Antipolo City
Telephone: 5843199
Mobile: 0917-8912208
Email: info@jardindemiramar.com

Da Vinci-The Genius Exhibition is in Town

Promotional material grabbed from the facebook page of Mind Museum

Da Vinci-The Genius is on exhibit in Mind Museum, Bonifacio Global City until the 30th of November.  I have been to museum exhibits in several museums in Germany, and in Singapore but last Saturday was my first in the Philippines. And I did enjoy it.

On display were re-creations of his designs and inventions.  What amazed me was how someone from the 1400s could come up with models of many of what we have today. One would see the forerunners of a helicopter, parachute, piano, scuba dive suit and gears, armoured tanks, cannon and car, among many others- designed based on his observation of nature.

Imagine driving a self propelled car like this.

And imagine your car having an odometer this big

Would you fly in a flying machine?

Or jump in a cone shaped parachute?

And this is the precessor of the helicopter

And this armoured car of the 1400s would have amazed
the pikemen of the enemy

One good thing about the exhibit is that it is interactive  and children will enjoy trying out things...and I am pretty sure they will enjoy the mirror which shows infinite reflection.

Children trying things out..

Selfie-s in the Mirror Room

"Children" enjoying the inventions

Aside from his inventions, replicas of his paintings were likewise shown, which of course, includes the Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa and other Renaissance Art Work of Da Vinci

The "Obra Maestra"

A film on Da Vinci's life was also shown- and one surprising fact is that the guy writes backwards, from right to left, producing mirror images of the words.  No wonder I could not figure out any of the words in his codex.

It was a fun 3-hour museum time. And would definitely recommend the exhibition.  

The exhibition is at the Mind Museum
JY Campos Park, 3rd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Taguig, Philippines
909-MIND(6463)

And you may get your tickets here