“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” – Psalms 23:1
My sister chanced upon this verse recently and she was wondering what it meant: What was it that she shall not want.
However she then experienced a couple of coincidences (situations, I suppose) which explained the verse to her and she grasped the meaning behind it.
When she posted about such coincidences, I felt a gentle prompting that they weren’t coincidences.
I was reminded of one of the fundamentals that I was taught as a believer is that there are no coincidences. Nothing happens by chance. What my sister experienced was not a coincidence. They were God incidents.
If we think random, significant events happening and popping are coincidences, Then I think we leave our lives a lot to chance, But we know that’s not true,
Because God has a plan for each and everyone of us.
And that’s why Psalms 23 ends by telling us,
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us, All the days of our lives.”
I called a week in advance when I was still in Chiang Mai, but was told that I can just walk in anytime after 10:30am. No appointments were required.
Hence, on the day I landed in Bangkok, I headed straight to the hotel to leave my luggage and reached Crown Tailor before noon. It’s located near the entrance of Sukhumvit Soi 8, on the left hand side about 30 metres into the soi.
I walked in and was greeted by a fine chap named Sandy. I informed Sandy of what I wanted to get and he walked me through the different kinds of fabric. I was looking for a suit and so he offered me 3 options: 6000, 9000 or 12,000 baht. Sandy very thoroughly explained the differences to me and I ended choosing a wool suit.
This is my third time tailoring in Bangkok. My previous experiences were with Ravi Sehgal and Boss Avenue. I know Bangkok tailors typically rush the shirts out on the third day, because previously Ravi Sehgal got the shirts delivered to the hotel when I was about to head to the airport, and Boss Avenue made me wait inside the shop for more than an hour, so this time I set aside a total of 4 days to ensure there was ample time.
I spent almost an hour with Sandy, did the measurements and selected the fabrics. He arranged for me to come back the next day at 4pm for the first fitting.
The next day, I received a call at about 1pm and was told that they were ready for my fitting. I reached around 2pm and was given a shirt, pants and vest to try on. The shirt was almost perfect except for some minor adjustments required on the sleeves. The pants required more adjustments because it was supposed to be slim fitting but it was too tight around the waist, crotch and hips. The vest was alright, so he added in the padding and sleeves, and checked that the sleeve length was ok.
Sandy was confident that the suit would be ready the next day.
I went down around the same time, which was about 3pm. Sandy greeted me and informed me that the suit was ready. I was very pleased because this is the first time a Bangkok Tailor was punctual. The shirt was perfect, and so were the pants. The jacket sleeves were a little long and baggy. I wanted to show more cuffs when wearing the jacket. Sandy informed me that they will alter on the spot and this took about 15 or 20 minutes. I tried them on one more time and it felt perfect.
Took 3 days in total (I could have even made it for an evening flight back.), leaving my 4th day completely free and available.
Their suits (jacket and pants): 6000, 9000 and 12,000 baht. Shirts start from 1300 baht. Pants are 2500 onwards to 3000 baht.
I took a Grab to Sarnies and midway through the journey, the Grab driver asked if we were heading for Pad Thai. I said no, Sarnies is a new cafe that opened recently. I had no idea what Pad Thai was he referring to.
The Grab driver looked at the address and said that Charoen Krung 44 has a famous Pad Thai place. He explained that people will know Pad Thai in Charoen Krung 44 more than Sarnies.
I brushed him aside because I saw on Instagram that Sarnies Bangkok looks really rustic and have planned on visiting them.
As we drove into the soi at about 11am, the driver pointed out to a restaurant with a signboard “Baan Pad Thai” which looked empty inside. We didn’t think much about it and headed 50 metres further down to Sarnies.
The menu was surprisingly quite extensive (to be fair, I have never been to the one in Singapore) with varieties of mains and all day breakfast. The coffee was flavorful but not exactly the kind that I was expecting. (I like a mix of fruits and nuts.)
Salted egg pasta was nice for the first few bites, but the salted egg then gets to me and it becomes really heavy. I would recommend it for sharing.
When we were done, we walked out of the soi towards the BTS station and passed Baan Pad Thai again. This time we saw that the restaurant was packed and some patrons were seated outside the restaurant with their food. I peeped at their food and saw amazing Pad Thai with the entire crab and also Pad Thai with huge ass prawns.
I was too filled with salted egg to stuff another plate of Pad Thai in, but it gives me a reason to be back here again.
Took a trip to spend time with Mother Nature to hide away from all the busy and hectic. The objective was simple, to just chill and do nothing.
Mon Nuea homestay was about half an hour’s drive out of Chiang Mai city. Most of the journey was going upwards towards the peak of the mountains. We lost our way a couple of times but eventually reached in the late afternoon.
There were 3 kinds of accommodation available: Tents, domes and rooms. I would have preferred the tents because each tent had an attached bathroom, however the tents were all fully booked when we got there. Hence we opted for the domes. Domes have no attached toilet but all share a common bathroom with 4 shower and 4 cubicles. The rooms are pretty standard wooden and bamboo, with attached bathroom and balcony, but it would be pointless to stay within walls when you’re spending a night on the mountains to enjoy all things natural.
For dinner, it was a standard Thai barbeque steamboat on a charcoal stove that each accommodation would have. The food was nothing special to be honest, mookata is mookata regardless of how you cook it, however to have mookata in the evening breeze while watching the evening sunset is something different.
This is how it looks like inside the dome. It was high enough for me to stand up straight without knocking on to the canvas, and it comes with a small table fan that we didn’t use because it got cooler when the sky got dark. We left a bottle of yogurt out in the open and at night the temperatures drop as low as 12 degrees celsius. By sunrise, the yogurt was already chilled.
The reception lobby also serves as a convenience store that sells very basic necessities and beverages. That’s also the same place where breakfast will be served in the morning.
Breakfast is a very simple bowl of porridge with minced meat, a hard boiled egg, and some garnishing. You may think I’m kidding but there was so much simplicity in this dish it was the most amazing breakfast I ever had. The porridge was so good.
Maybe that’s why they call it a homestay, Breakfast tastes like how traditional grannies would prepare them. Or maybe it’s called a homestay, Because everywhere’s our home if we explore these places together.
