Hmm.. Back here again to update on my bkk trip, which I was dragged by my sister to go. If not for the full trip paid by her and mum, I wouldn't even consider going, looking at my pile of work eagerly waiting for me to lay my hands on them. But lucky I finished off the most urgent ones before flying. The rest of the BIG PROJECTS can wait. ^^
Rushed to the airport after ponning the lab lesson halfway through. Well everyone also went off so why shouldn't I. Haha. reached there just in time to check in with mum, sis and Eugene, but had to forgo my dinner cos no time to eat outside already. Had to check in. Yup. And my sis whipped out her brand new camera and started snapping away..
After a restless 2 hour flight... WELCOME TO THE LAND OF SMILES! As a lot of people put it. Quite a number of tours arrived at the same timing as us. Saw China, Japan, Korean and India tour groups. Wow. Plus lot of free-and-easy travelers like us. Met quite a number of Singaporeans and Malaysians coming here on a short weekend getaway.
Spent quite a while at the airport. While Eugene was off finding some handphone shop to purchase a 3G SIM card so that we can all tap onto his mobile internet. And I out of hunger purchased 2 sticks of pork kebab. Ok looks more like satay I realised. But nice though.
Long queue at the taxi berths! Had to wait like half an hour plus to come to our turn to get on a cab. There are middlemen writing down our destinations to the drivers so that we don't need to have a hard time directing them where to go. One slip of paper, and tada. Driver's on the way. We took a long 45 mins to get to Bayyoke sky hotel. Ya. After being stuck in a massive jam that stretched for kilometres, so significant that even on the plane I can clearly see that 8 lane expressway jammed up with cars, lorries, trucks. Surprisingly, not many motorcycles on the road.
Finally reached at 11.30pm, GMT+7:00. Yup its one hour slower than Singapore. Cab fare is super cheap! Like SGD$10 for a 30+km trip. You never get such rates in SG and Malaysia. Anyway dragged our luggage in and we were told that there were no connecting rooms for us. So they upgraded (for free) to suites where there are 2 side-by-side suite rooms on the 27th floor. AWWWWW. First time staying in a suite!
We were of course, amazed by the size of the rooms. One living room, one bedroom, and a corridor that stretches in past the walk-in wardrobe to the bathroom. And there were both bathtubs and shower cubicles!
But for some reason we all felt uneasy. Too big for our good. Mum wouldn't even dare to stay in her room alone. I didn't dare to shower, even with Eugene inside the bedroom. Ugh. Wondering if any eerie scene like those in horror movies happen to us.. got paranoid to the extent of asking my friends about their stay in Thailand after hearing some ghost stories from them not too long ago.T.T
Ok anyway, at this timing because of the rain most of the shops were closed... including the pasar malam(s). Had to walk around before settling for a quick dinner/supper at black canyon restaurant near our hotel. Hmm.
We didn't sleep that early. Thought we will unpack all our stuff and shower, and by the time we were done it was way past 2am. Ok sleep.
2nd day. Woke up quite late. And we were off. My first time wandering in the pasar malam streets of Bangkok. Quite a lot of female stuff to look at. But not much for guys. Didn't arouse much interest in me. Had a brunch at A&W and Eugene went over to the KFC beside and got popcorn chicken and chicken wings for us. Haha. And the root beer float was SUPER LARGE! *burpppppppp*
Made our way to our highlight of the trip: Chatukchak market! Under the blazing hot sun. Had a good afternoon walking around the market, which was too big for us to finish within one day! Saw a lot of animals for sale, including birds, turtles, mice, hamsters, super-sized dogs, snakes, and more. Sis and Eugene bought a lot of things along the way, and mum tried to squeeze her bought items into my bag. Which already contained 2 pouches and one bag. All at very cheap prices. You should see how people try to bargain there, including my mum, sis and Eugene! So fun talking to them. Like they go "You buy 1 no discount you buy 2 got discount, I no earn, blablabla". Bet all of us had a good time shopping there. Walked past as many shops as possible to find what i wanted to buy: slippers. Hard time though...
All of us half shagged after 4pm. Had a dunno-what coconut dessert before moving on to...Chinatown! Just because mum wanted to buy her cream and some dunno what medicinal oil. Searched almost every TCM shop but to no avail.. but lucky enough the uncles and aunties there know chinese and they kindly helped us find our way around.
After long walk, dinner! There were these 2 competing tze char stalls with bustling business and we had to squeeze 4 persons on a table not bigger than my study table for dinner. Seafood, tom yam soup, chicken wings, ... yum yum. Way better than Singapore's. Now, this is what we call local delicacies.
Moving on to... bird nest. Saw so many bird nest shops so might as well try out. Learnt that there are different grades of bird nest, and each grade is served in different "classes" of bowls. Haha. That costs us like SGD13 per bowl of grade 3 bird nest. OUCH. Then we went on to tease my mum that she hasn't served us bird nest for like over a decade already. *hint hint*
Wanted to go back to the hotel after a long tiring day, but then... seeing our taxi being stuck in a jam, and since it was so coincidentally beside a very big CentreWorld shopping mall.. "Taxi stop in front!" paid and get off. Next shopping venue! It wasn't getting early, and most of the shops close at Singapore timings, so we didn't have much time to shop..
I literally ran around the whole mall, mind you. Floor by floor, just wanting to find my slippers, and of course looking at other stuffs also. Still didn't have enough time to finish the whole mall. But never mind. Had my fill of window shopping. There were those fun fairs just outside the mall at the plaza, like those Uuncle Ringo type, so sis and Eugene went to try their luck but as expected, out of luck.
Walked back to hotel. And shopped along the still opening roadside stalls. Super tired. And at 11 all of us back at the hotel and Eugene suggested we order some sushi! We agreed on that after coming back to the hotel after the black canyon restaurant the day before and looking at the menu we went "wow here got more food to order la". Waited around 45 minutes for our sushi to arrive whilst packing our newly bought stuff into our newly bought bags, and i threw away my old one. Haha.
Eugene's father came also! And he was surprised we got so huge a suite. He visited our room and explored and he wowed at our room. But anyway, he had to come down cos he forgot to bring his ipad cable here today so he had to borrow from me.
Back to eating! Ugh sushi tastes super nice and appetizing at this hour. Imagine eating sushi while watching TV in a suite like a boss. And mum was like "don't leave me alone!" in her room and kept making us come over. LOL. She even requested to join us when we were going up to the 83rd floor at 1am to view the night scenery when usually at this time she was supposed to be fast asleep =.=
Good night.
Oh ya. I bought redbull! Yay. Missed it since 2009 at Sai Yok camp. 3 bottles some more.
3rd day
Woke up just to nua. And watch TV. Nothing much to do. And i realised i forgot to turn on the switch to charge my portable charger! Ugh! Wasted. So anyway, packed my stuff hurriedly, threw my disposables inside the room, checked out, put all our stuff in Eugene's father's room (he kindly let us put our stuff in there while we go shopping) and had buffet chinese lunch at the top. Needless to say, i spammed as many mussels as possible. Make every dollar worth ma. Hor?
They serve Beijing roasted duck! Duck skin! Aww. Nice nice! :D
Went off for our final day of shopping. At MBK. Wooh a good place for shopping! Super lots of stuff for sale there! But a word of advice: don't buy electronics here. Not worth. Want buy please buy in SG. So had a good 1 1/2 hr of shopping, looking around for my slippers... on my own. And I finally found one. Not that fantastic though, but its light and its comfy, who cares about appearance?
We wanted to go to the wax museum. But it seems too ex for us. 600 baht per pax. Whoa. Total rip off. And we know that the people there anyhow jack up prices to tourists like us. Ya we know one okay. And so we skipped and off to more shopping we go...
Next and probably final stop. Siam paragon. Wheeee~ That's where all the branded are. Me, in my atrocious attire of tshirt shorts and slippers, had the cheek to go in and browse around. HA! Joke. Side point. sis and Eugene bought donuts meant for snacks before dinner. But little did we realise we had them only back in SG -.-
And that marks the end of our shopping at BKK. Back to get our stuffs, and off we go. Dragged all the heavy luggage out, carried them down the street until i reached the train station where i find the ground clean enough for my wheels to run on.
The trains are quite fast, surprisingly. Like WAY FASTER than Singapore's FANTASTIC train system. They go like 80 and above, even beating cars on the expressway that ran alongside the tracks. Thanks to that we reached the airport like within 30 mins. For a 30+km distance, that's really something.
Oh and btw. Two Korean chicks spotted. Beside mum seated on the train. Haha. But from their looks can tell they had plastic surgery. Ok side point again.
Rushed to check in, and found that food inside is ?!?!? expensive! One meal easily costs $10 and above like whattheshit! Total daylight robbery sia! But no choice, since we were so hungry we had to just grab a bite at least. I went to this restaurant and ordered a takeaway, thinking I could eat it at the boarding gate, but ended up having it there. To add on, Eugene and sis came in with outside food bought from other stalls and had them beside me! The waiter was laughing away. Haha. Apologised, quickly polished up my meal (I was damn hungry) and off we went.
We were the last few to reach the boarding gate! Tada! See la. Go in late just nice. No need wait wait wait.
And.... Yup. I took a very nice video of the plane's takeoff from my seat window.
...
Back. Home sweet home. Mum was rushing to the immigration gate only to fall back behind us cos her passport takes longer than anyone else to scan. LOL. Irony. First to go, last to reach.
And that sums up my trip in BKK.. nothing much to talk about here. Leaving out all the minor details. Or that will take forever to type out.
Pictures? Hmm. With my sis. She uploaded onto fb.
It's late. Time to sleep. Nights.