Coldplay AHFOD Tour Concert in Bangkok, 2017

 So two weeks ago, I went to watch Coldplay live in concert for their AHFOD Tour 2016- 2017 in Asia!

We caught the one in Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

I camped for hours a few months ago attempting to get the Singapore ones but failed due to poor organizing and kiasu scalpers, but all's well ends well because I managed to get the Bangkok ones rather easily. 

Now, I am very sure Coldplay needs no introduction. They've been around for more than a decade and have more chart-topping hits than I do fingers. I am not the only one who can subconsciously sing along to "Yellow" or "The Scientist" or "Fix You" whenever, wherever it is playing. I was also pretty into their latest record, A Head Full of Dreams, but when I heard that they were going to play some of those loved chart-topping hits, I made up my mind that we absolutely HAD to go to this. So 3 tickets I got, and off my cousin, my boyfriend and I to Bangkok for OUR Adventure of a Lifetime!

The concert was on 7th April 2017, and my BF and I went to the venue around noon to collect the tickets (my cousin was feeling ill and stayed at the apartment). We had a lousy experience because our stupid Grab driver dropped us really far away from the Stadium and we had to walk a lot under the heat getting lost in circles before I eventually asked a Westerner how to get there (none of the Thais could speak English) and find out that the entire time, we were just going around inside the University next to the Stadium -_-

We finally got there after almost an hour, which was messed up because the stadium was literally just there but there were tall fences around it so it became unreachable -_-

I rated the Grab driver "really bad" because he was so shit.

We were relieved that the ticket collection was relatively easy and quick, must be due to everyone already having picked theirs up at other venues before the concert day.

We then saw the merchandise queue and joined right in, where we queued for about two hours. It was really, really hot and the concert was attended by a LOT of Indonesians who flew in to catch the concert!

 They had T shirts with 6 different designs, hoodies, tote bags, key chains, programme booklets and caps.

 I remember wondering to myself who in the world would get the programme booklet but my cousin got it later that night before the concert hahaha

Out t shirts were around B$55 each.

It was fairly well-organized with 20 counters. When its your turn, they will announce the free counter and you just go there and tell them what you want, based on the numbering of the merchandise on the banners.

 Yay!

After that, we made one of the decisions of our life which we would forever look back on and shake our heads to, we took a Grab back to the apartment all the way back in the city. Actually, it is not as far as it sounds, but if you imagine tens of thousands of people all trying to get to one location, you can imagine the shit that is called a jam. We took around 2 hours to go back to the apartment, took a quick shower, picked up my cousin and went BACK to the Stadium, which took another 2-3 hours. The jam was so horrid that we just told the driver to drop us and we would walk the remaining journey.

I walked so much that day my Melissas gave up on me and punished me by cutting my skin open at the sides and the back of my poor feet.

When we got to the venue, we went to the third floor to our seats but were told to go back down to the ground floor. Apparently, the organizers oversold the seats, aka one seat was sold to more than one person. -_- We are quite submissive Asians so we just chose any seat in the ground floor. I was quite alright with it because it was technically an upgrade (tickets were more expensive for ground floor) and we ended up being quite near the stage (we were right behind the most pits) although we had quite limited view due to some tent set-ups. But, #submissiveAsians.

Before the crowd started piling up.. There was a 60,000 crowd that night, and my cellular reception from AIS just died. Also, you can see the 50 shades of tanner I got from the day of walking and getting lost (plus the day before's trip to Ayutthaya which I will blog about some other time).

 Also, it started to drizzle a little bit so we had our trusty rain coats out but thankfully the drizzle stopped, and we were able to enjoy the concert without getting wet. It was really stuffy in that rain coat..

  Mega love to these weirdoes!

 We were all given wristbands that lit up in ~synchronization~ which was super cool, and this was how it looked like when the stadium was full! The wristbands would light up in difficult colors and in different beats depending on certain parts of some songs

I've a lot of videos compared to photos! At one point Chris Martin told us to put our phones down for a minute LOL

The concert started at 8PM with the opening act, an Australian singer/rapper called Jess Kent, and Coldplay killed it at 9PM with "A Head Full of Dreams" in what I can only describe as an explosion of vibrancy to my eyes and to my ears!!

The concert was amazing!! They covered so many of the best songs not only by them, but songs that were ever entrusted upon us normal human beings!! I absolutely enjoyed myself and it was definitely one the best moments of my life... And I am not being dramatic. The crowd was energetic, the songs were pure bliss, the talent was raw and it just combined to the most bombastic experience, that I am really having difficulty trying to convey the awesomeness into words for you (but I think I did fairly well?).

If you are curious, here is the set list for Bangkok's AHFOD concert, instead it wasn't listed but they sang "Speed of Sound" which is probably right up THERE for the list of my favorite Coldplay songs.I also loved how Chris Martin did a shout out for the late KKing Bhumibol Adulyadej through the beautiful melody, Everglow, as well as some other legendary artists who have recently left us in the likes of David Bowie, Mohammad Ali and Prince.

Chris Martin was like a fireball, covering all corners of the stage, and when he would run out to the end of the stage through the mosh pit, it would allow us to see him the most clearly. The group's performance was just a burst of energy and fun, and even Will and Johnny performed as lead vocals for Don't Panic (the requested song, ironically by a Chinese from mainland China/ It was showed on-screen and when Chris said he hopes to one day play in China, the crowd booed. Haha oh Chris, you have much to learn!!).

The concert ended pretty early by 11PM and as expected, the journey going back to the apartment was in the simplest word: difficult. No Grab or Uber cars and taxis would accept your requests because they would rather stop by the street and charge you double. We decided to walk to the nearest railway station, which was an hour's walk away. This too, would end up as a terrible decision because when we eventually got there, not only were we tired (and in pain) and it was late, the railway station was already closed by midnight. We were lucky enough to eventually have a Grab car pick us up and eventually got back to the apartment and in bed by 2 AM.

It was tedious, yes to get there and back but it was worth it because, hell- Coldplay.
The concert was just so amazing, and I would do it all over again (with better decisions lol). Thank you Coldplay for the amazing experience, it really really did make my head full of dreams come true!

Xx

My Visit to the Dermatologist in Bangkok

A couple of months back on my trip to Bangkok, I decided to go and visit a dermatologist.

Aside from Korea, Thailand is one of the top countries in Asia that has top-notch dermatologists all over. Thais take very good care and effort with their skin, and the women have such lovely and clear skin.

I've visited clinics in Brunei and Miri but not a proper dermatologist before.

I have a Thai friend who recommended me to go to Rajdhevee Clinic, a dermatology clinic that her sister went to before and had excellent results.

I actually suffer from acne around my chin area. Theyon come and go not very often, but when they do, they come in the form of cysts which are really the worst because they don't have 'heads' and they get really red and painful. They're deep in the skin so there's really no way to make them go away!

I also suffered from bumps and scars from when these cysts 'leave'.

I looked the clinic up and sent my inquiries via email months prior. I set up an appointment for a consultation. I attached a couple of photos of my skin condition and they replied with what treatment would suit me, based on the photos.

The clinic was not difficult to find. It was around 5 mins walk from the Ploenchit station. We had to seek directions from another clinic which had a similar name, but overall it wasn't too difficult.

 

 Found our way to the clinic. It is a very bright and clean

The staff could all speak English, so communication was a breeze. After confirming my appointment, I was asked to wait for my turn to see the doctor.

When it was my turn, the nurse asked me to enter a small office, where a Thai doctor was seated and conducted my consultation. He could speak good English as well, which made the whole process very smooth.

If you plan to visit, I would suggest you tell them early on that you need an English speaking doctor if you cannot speak Thai.

I told him my concerns and after looking at my skin, he told me what treatments I needed:

1. VBeam

2. CO2 Fractional Laser

The VBeam was for my red and active problem areas which weere mostly around my lips, while the CO2 Fractional Lsaer was for the scarring and bumps concentrated on my chin area. 

He warned that it may hurt "a little bit" and said that I could opt for the numbing cream which will require 40 minutes to set for it to work its magic. I obviously opted for it because I had this idea that if a doctor says something's gonna hurt, something's gonna hurt!

The procedures themselves could be done in just a couple of minutes, but it was the numbing cream that took a long time.

After that, I was led into a brightly lit room with four beds inside, one of which was occupied by a man with a lot of white cream on his face, who I presume was just done with his treatment, whatever it was. The nurse then asked me if I wanted liquid or cream makeup remover, to which I chose liquid. She then walked away and I proceeded to remove my makeup, only to have her come and giggle and tell me no, she was going to do it, not me. Oops.

So I laid on the bed next to the man with the white cream, and she removed my makeup for me. She then applied the numbing cream on above my lips and on my chin. I laid there for 40 minutes waiting for it to set and what was the worst thing was there was no reception/wifi in that room the entire time!

So after that 40 minutes, I was led into another brightly lit room with a chair in the middle, much like the dentist's. Next to the chair was this machine:

This is the VBeam machine. It was the exact same one as that in the picture I got off Google.

I sat there alone for maybe 2 minutes and then the doctor who assessed me and a nurse entered and instructed me to lie down while they adjusted the chair to lay flat. They then covered both my eyes with cotton pads and I could hear the machine come alive. Then the doctor started counting 1,2,3 and ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP it went on my problem areas. Every Zap was like lightning and I could see the bright flashing yellow lights with every zap through the cotton pads. Even with the numbing cream, the zaps stung slightly when they zapped below my nose and above my lips. That was the only part that stung, probably because it was the most sensitive part.

After that, I was whisked away very quickly to another room (yes, also brightly-lit). Instead of a chair, it was a bed where I laid down on and was instructed to close my eyes. Very quickly, they did the CO2 laser on my chin. It felt like very very small needles rubbing on my skin. It felt somewhat like a diamond peel facial but with lesser friction. The C02 laser did not hurt at all.

This was when I had to wait for the numbing cream to set (very cringey for me but pics or it didn't happen...Right). They also Zapped the pimple scar I had in between my eyes, which had no numbing cream but it didn't hurt.

The process only took a couple of minutes and I was out from the entire thing (numbing cream process, treatments) within an hour. I was lucky my BF was ok to accompany and wait for me.

The clinic also provides a lot of other skin-related issues that go beyond just face-wise.

How much did the entire thing cost?

I don't remember exactly but the whole thing was around B$100. I've a feeling it was slightly lesser. This included the consultation, numbing cream, treatment and medication:

 The clinic sold a lot of their own products ranging from sunscreen to acne creams that you can choose to purchase. I got the Acne Clear and Spot Reducer. I like how I asked for the Spot Reducer and that the clinic does not strongly encourage (force) you to buy their products. You can see the prices listed on them; 690 baht (B$27.44) for the Acne Clear and 580 baht (B$23.06) for the Acne Spot Reducer cream. They gave instructions on how and when to use the medications.

Here is the name card of the doctor that I consulted. English-speaking and recommended.

I asked the doctor if there was any precaution I should take post-treatment but he said that there was zero downtime. The nurse advised that I must use moisturizer and sunscreen at all times. 

Find the clinic here:

Rajdhevee Clinic - The Mastery (Phoenchit)

Location: 888/49 Ploenchit Rd., Lumpini, Patumwan Bangkok 10330
Telephone: 022515588 Ext. 5152, 5153 , 022540314-5, 022529251, 022513427, 022513495
Email: ploenchit@rcskinclinic.com
Website: http://www.rcskinclinic.com/

Would I return, and was it worth it? Did it work?
The scars really did fade away, which I am grateful for because prior to the visit, they've been lingering for many months even when I religiously applied cream/ bio oil.
The bumps on my chin did get smaller and less obvious, also from months of nothing working.
The results however were not instant and took maybe 1 month or 2. After the VBeam, I had tiny scabs (like dots) which the doctor told me to be careful not to disturb. I did of course, slightly because they were so light and came off easily, but new ones formed almost right after and they didn't leave scars in the end.

I did not get any pimples/cysts for a while after that until late last month, I had a new one on my chin. It may be due to my diet or really anything at all, but I would return again to Rajdhevee if I ever need to (knock on wood)  and have the chance. It was very professional and effective.
Hope this post helps!