Mia's Bangkok Travelogue: Alpaca View Restaurant

Shortly after my previous Bangkok trip, I've heard of this Alpaca Cafe that has sprung up in Bangkok and I was like, "Damn, I missed it!"

So naturally, this 'alpaca cafe' got onto my must-visit list for this Bangkok trip, and TADAA~

We went to visit the alpacas, BUT they're on medical leave for eye infections. Dang it! :(

The place is really big, judging that it needs to fit an indoor seating area, alfresco sitting area with a stage for live performances, and large roaming areas for their animals. Other than alpacas, there's also horses, donkeys, pigs, goats, geese and rabbits in the premise.
Another characteristic point of their decor, is the total un-relatedness of one decor to the other. At the entrance you'll see a windmill right opposite Eiffel tower, and in front of the tower stood a snowman. And then walking further in, you'll see a family of Koalas, and they're brown!

But the funny thing was, despite the entire mismatch of literally every piece of decoration in the premise, the place still looked good and there's an overall relaxing atmosphere that surrounds you while you dine. 

 Watermelon Smoothie (Slush) and Lemon Soda

Well, you can't go wrong with a cup of icy cold watermelon slush on a hot day (or evening). But that lemon soda was a little too acutely sour for me though.

 Stir-fry Morning Glory Stalk

Specially ordered this because I've never seen morning glory (stalks) in any other menu before and I HAD to try this out. Savoury and slightly spicy, the stalks were kept relatively crunchy and they're really yummy and goes pretty well with plain rice. My only complaint is that they should have cut the stalks into small bits, for picking these long stalks up with a fork and trying to bite onto one end (to start munching like a rabbit/goat) can really look pretty... unglam, no joke.

 Tom Yum Goong

Well, something you just have to eat while you're in Bangkok, but may not necessary love. The Thailand/Bangkok version of TYG is always too sour for my liking (acutely sour plus spicy hot really isn't the best combination for sensitive throats), but I just can't help ordering one when I see them on the menu when I'm in Thailand.
I mean, if not now, then when? Right?

 Omelette with Seafood

The best dish we had for the night, without a doubt. I know right, you can hardly go wrong with eggs, especially when they're fried till crispy at the edges and fluffy on the insides, and then stuffed with shrimps. The amount of food we ordered were definitely too much for 2, but this plate of omelette was polished off at the end.

Fried Grouper/Snapper

Didn't know T ordered this. It was a major 'Oh, I shouldn't have!' moment when it was served. He thought it would be a whole, fried fish but what came was the whole fried fish carcass bones with minced fish meat, probably stir-fried with a whole lot of other ingredient and spices, so much so that we couldn't even tell that we're eating fish.

BBQ Scallops in diced garlic

Didn't like the dip, at all. It tasted weird, near rancid for me. Definitely an acquired taste there. As for the scallops, they were pretty good. Sweet and slightly chewy, but it'll be good if they weren't so generous with the chopped garlic and spring onions. 

And while waiting for out massive order to be served, we left the table for some animal-exploring! 

And well, the alpacas went on medical leave, so the next cutest things we met were these hungry, squealing piglets! 

There were three of these greedy piglets and you can get a small bottle of milk at 20 baht to feed them! If you follow me on IG (@mianne86) you should have seen my instavideo of their greedy selves vying for the milk bottles. 

Other than milk for the piglets, you can also buy a box of pellets to feed the goats. I wouldn't say it's the best experience, for these goats were.... violent. HAHAHA! You really had to use force to keep a firm grip on the container to not have all the pellets spilled while they try to empty it in seconds. 

One greedy goat got so excited trying to pick the pellets on the ground that it actually squeezed itself through the small gap in between the barricade and gave the staff a pretty tough time trying to chase it back in. 

And RABBITS! I got so excited seeing this pretty rabbit munching on some food under a long bench as I came out of the washroom and waiting for T. For the staff did tell us that there's rabbits around but we couldn't find any. And as we decided to leave and headed for toilet breaks first, tadaa~ I found one!
And right beside this rabbit was a pretty grumpy looking goose. Didn't want to get chased or pecked, so... no shots of it. Heh!

And while we walked out of the premise, we saw another rabbit family chilling on the grass patch. See one with a one-lopped ear! So cute!
And when they saw me aiming my camera at them, they all decided to show me their sexy backs.

And lastly, there's two obviously very bored donkeys housed at the entrance to say their goodbyes to us. And there's the snowman and Eiffel tower I was talking about at the beginning. 

Getting to Alpaca View can be quite troublesome because it's pretty far away from Bangkok city centre. We decided to forget about all the squeezing and lines changing on the BTS/MRT and hopped onto a cab right outside our hotel, and then got stuck in a glorious traffic jam. Google map stated the car ride will be about half a hour with smooth traffic, and it was more than an hour's ride in the cab for us and the cab fare was about 200 plus baht. 

Or else, if you'll really not want to waste time doing nothing but doze off out of boredom in the cab while getting stuck in a traffic jam, you can take the MRT (or BTS then change to the MRT line at the interchange stations) to Lat Phrao station first before hopping onto a cab and telling the cabbie to get you to Wang Hin 71. Traffic turned exceptionally smooth after we went past the Lat Phrao MRT Station exit and it took about slightly more than 5 minutes (at most 10) to reach Alpaca View.

For more information, visit their FB page HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Jelly's Update: Jelly's Grooming Day!

Finally, a long awaited update for Jelly! 

Yup, and that's Jelly watching Running Man along with me every Saturday night. She either watches the TV or she watches me watching the TV. And that's Jelly's pre-groomed bunny butt over there. Yup, unruly (matted) fur in her overgrown tail and full of yellowish pee stains. Tried multiple times to wipe her down with a baby wipe but it really doesn't help at all. 

And so I decided to bring her for grooming! 

And there's Jelly, sulking in the new carrier I bought for her. Dresden's kitty carrier can't work because it's too dark and she gets terrified and starts to gnaw-pull at the opening. She's more calm and stable in this picnic-basket style carrier, just that because it's too big for her (twice her size) she keeps fidgeting, sliding and hopping around in the carrier. 

I made an appointment with Pets Republic (Telok Kurau branch) at 1230pm and when I was there at about 1220pm, I realised they were still closed and another girl with her pet bunny was sitting outside at the shop, waiting since 12pm. It wasn't until 1245pm that the lady boss rushed over in a cab, claiming that her girl is supposed to be around to open the shop at 12pm. She thought that the girl probably left for her 1 hr lunch, but we both didn't tell her that nobody came around at 12pm.
And then the biggest shock of the day happened. She pushed her keys into the lock, and pushed the insides of the lock system right out of the frame.

Oh well, more waiting required. This time, for the locksmith. It's really just not any of our days. So we left our bunnies with her and I dropped by Penny University for a cuppa coffee (their Muddy Expresso with Cold Milk rocks!) before returning to The Garden Slug, which was located right opposite Pets Republic, for my lunch. Speaking of this, I've yet to blog about my dinner here with OYHZ and Finaldust almost 2 months ago. *yikes*

Finally, the locksmith came at at 1 plus and I finally got Jelly in for grooming at about 2pm. Yes, my initial appointment time was 1230pm. 

There should be two cats to greet you at the door as you enter (if not 1, because Einstein might not be always so at-the-door), Munchkin, the Munchkin, and Einstein, (I'm guessing) the Persian. Look at Munchkin! Such cute short legs! But both cats are actually pretty camera shy, especially Munchkin. I took like 10 shots to capture one of her looking near the camera. Most of the time when she noticed the camera, she will quickly turn the other way. 

Now, back to Jelly's grooming....

First up she had her nails trimmed. I'm kind of scared of trimming her front paws because they're so tiny! I once ended up flipping her paws inside out as I snip on her nails at a wrong angle and she refused to let me touch her paws for a few days after. 

 Then, due to her bad pee stains at her butt, I decided to give her a wash down. She did kick a bit as she's really nervous with her first time grooming, but the groomer managed to handle her well. 

 Then on to the blow-drying, the part I was most worried about. Jelly is really kind of timid and she get startled even by our loud sneezings or sudden loud noises from the TV. Yes, she got that "Oh my gawd, save me!" look on her during the blow-drying but thankfully she still took it in her strides. 

Well done, Jelly! :)

 Then it's on to brushing out the matts in her tail....

And finally the groomer decided to trim off the excessively matted/stained/overgrown fur at her butt. 

Look at her trance state there, so comical!

And there's Jelly upon reaching home after grooming. She smelled so good from her spa soak bath and her fur noticeably softer (and shorter at the butt). 

 Here's some before pictures...

And the after! See, cute small tail with furry white bunny butt! :)

And now to spam more cute animal pictures...

The forever grumpy Einstein. She kept coming to me that day and meowed at me. 

And that's the camera shy Munchkin. She look so grouchy in the last picture because I was bent on taking a picture of her face. She kept turning her head away from the camera until she gave up. *rofl*

One of the cats boarding at Pets Republic. When I went near her and look at her, she meowed at me! And then we started meow-versationing. The lady boss was pretty amused and told me this cat usually doesn't give a hoot about others who go near her cage. 

 The cat-boarder in the next cage. Initially I thought he's a young Maine Coon (he looks so much like Shadow, a friend's Maine Coon) but it turns out he's not. He's an Australian Forest.... something. Ahaha, but very pretty indeed! 

There's actually another Maine Coon, kept in another large cage at a dark corner of the shop, who has his fur shaved off except for the face. Omg, that was such a pitiful yet comical sight but I didn't take any pictures because... I don't know, felt disrespectful? 

And moving on to the bunnies...

 

 Meet Cotton, another bunny in queue behind Jelly for grooming. So round and fluffy, a true cotton ball indeed!

 Some lops chillaxing at one corner....

 Here's another cotton ball! It's so fluffy I'm gonna dieeeee!

 Ahaha, the bunny here has got some lop-butt fetish, I guess?

 I just ROFL-ed when I saw this. Funny beyond words.

 A very pretty, white bunny with blue eyes. 

 These dwarfs are just a few weeks old. And they're really tiny! Just palm sized!

And look what we've got here! A half-lop! Ahahahaha! I guess its still pretty young that's why the uneven lop-ness.

And then to the dogs....

Here's another dog that came in for boarding. Looks really cute and pitiful as it whined at me and did a cute head tilt when I looked at it. Apparently, it's a frequent boarder and turns into a monster when it sees food. 

A cute, old Golden Retriever, who has some skin problems at her snout because of a habit of always nudging things with her nose....

And finally, the Chinchillas!

 

Can you spot the chinchilla here? *rofl*

Pets Republic is located at 

No. 224 Telok Kurau Rd Lorong L, #01-06 Uni Building Singapore 423836

Tel: 6345 9132

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