Don't laugh, but there're very, very few pictures today.
Not sure what happened or how it became this- I'm pretty sure I did more stuff that what's worth in five pictures- but somehow life's like that, and all I have of this third day in BKK of mid-July are these.
Does it make the trip any less meaningful?
No, of course not.
A trip isn't defined by the pictures one takes, but defined by the memories one has.
It's like I might not have taken pictures of the birthday present I bought from the Big C building, but that doesn't mean the present's not there.
In the same way I might not have taken pictures of the Soap & Glory body mist that I got from Boots, but that doesn't mean the bottle wasn't there.
To be honest I cannot remember which is it that I did first.
Like, did I go for the hair spa at Siam Square 1 first, or did I buy the present from Big C building first?
Chances are I probably did the latter first.
After breakfast, of course, where this morning I took a portion of one of my favorite dishes of all time- fried kuay teow- or as they call it here, stir fried flat rice noodles with soy sauce.
I don't know why I didn't take a larger portion.
But maybe I'd thought I'd be full from the omelet that today had everything inside- red peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese, all- so controlled the portion together with just two siew mais and a handful of cherry tomatoes.
I love how tomatoes grant that unique burst of tomato juice that complement the salty, savory taste of the noodle so well.
Then again I might not have been as full as I thought, because I went for another portion of the stir-fried kuay teow, eating it, this time from a bowl.
Breakfast over I headed back to the room, and sometime in the late morning, went downstairs to the Big C building right next door. Here I got a pair of white and blue slides from brand Beverly Hills Polo.
On the same floor too was Boots, a major pharmacy in Thailand, and from here I bought a bottle of body mist from Soap & Glory.
Which fragrance it was, I don't quite recall, but it might well have been Almond & Vanilla.
Sometime later my friend introduced a place for hair spa across the road at Siam Square 1. The mall here, by the way, isn't small, and even though it might be a little different from the larger Siam Paragon and Central World, she's got her own charm, her own hangout gang, and her own mix of retail that seems so unique and unusual.
The salon we were going to was on one of the upper floors, and I think it specialized in scalp therapy and various forms of massages.
So comfortable it was having my head and scalp slowly massaged- the nerves felt it a great deal- that I soon fell asleep.
For a person like me, dropping off into deep slumber during a massage session is no surprise.
Happens to me all the time, whether it be foot massage, oil massage, head massage or even the supposedly painful Thai massage.
What was a surprise, however, was that the therapist brought me to have my hair straightened after the treatment, and for the first time in over a year, I looked in the mirror and saw the girl whom I once used to be.
So stunned was I at the transformation that I went into the bathroom and cried.
I haven't forgotten the very moment that I looked into the mirror and saw the style I used to have before January 2023.
And from that day on I decided I would possibly rebond my hair at the earliest possible time.
That didn't mean that I left the salon in tears.
On the other hand I left the place with paper bag in hand containing a pillow mist scented lavender and rosemary.
Maybe I looked like I needed it.
From here we crossed back to Central World, but not before I grabbed a quick picture of the Siam Square area.
This evening we decided to have tonkatsu at this place called Tonkatsu Wako.
Located on the 6th floor of Central World, this is, to me, one of the nicer places for Japanese tonkatsu.
It isn't merely that they've got huge portions or that they do the tonkotsu in a good breaded fry. It's that they put a lot of heart into the food that they make, they don't charge you a mind-boggling price, and so every bite you have becomes incredibly satisfying.
I love their portions, I love how they don't compromise with size whether it be the chicken or the pork or the prawn, and how generous they are when it comes to the experience of bite and chew.
What that means is that there's a genuine difference between a portion large enough for one to bite and savor the food, versus a portion that's enough only for you to fill your mouth and (hopefully) your stomach.
Let's just say it's not easy to define.
And maybe it takes a bit of trial and error before one gets the size right, but here at Tonkatsu Wako they do it right.
I love the tender meat inside the pork cutlet.
I love the slight mushiness of the ebi prawn.
And best of all, the breadcrumbs, which I scoop up from the dish- don't waste- after everything's finished.