Bangkok

I finally received my photographs from Bangkok trip. Hehe. Went to Bangkok with Wai Leng and Pui See with our respective partner on the end of February. It can be considered as shopping trip cause all we did everyday while we were in Bangkok is just shop, shop, shop and shop. We will definitely be back again for shopping but then much wiser after the first trip.

We booked our flight like 8 months prior to the trip. Our flight was like 9am in the morning. We reached LCCT early and had breakfast at Old Town.

 

Check out our exciting look. Haha. They did not pretend or pose in such way for me to take a photo. All of them were very tired as they slept very late the night before. Pui See and Deane did not sleep at all!! Haha.

 

That’s our ride to Bangkok. All of us were sleeping the whole journey to Bangkok. We woke up when they announced that we will be landing in Thailand airport soon. Hehe.

 

The airport is really big. When we got off the plane, we have to take a bus to reach the main terminal. Much more bigger than KLIA. I saw a sign there about “Airport of Smiles” but the staffs there did not smile to us at all. We have a hard time understanding their English the whole trip. They have flight information on Thai language as well. We have a hard time locating the custom counter as the sign only point out the way to transfer flight and others but none pointing towards the custom area. When we finally reached the custom, the queue on each counter was very long. We spent nearly 1 hour at the custom area. The officers did not smile or greet us. They only concentrate on our passport and only look at us from their camera with a camera attached to it. Oh well…

 

These were our starting luggage at the beginning of the trip. All were light as we did not bring much clothing as we plan to bring a bag stuffed with clothes back to KL. Hehe.

After claiming out luggage, we went to the basement where the train station is. I guess the train is the most convenient transport around Bangkok, plus we won’t get cheated and the driver cannot ask us to get off in the middle of the road. Me and Calvin experienced this before where the tuk tuk driver refused to send us to our hotel and ask us to get off the tuk tuk in the middle of the road. Being a foreigner, we do not want to argue. We paid him and quickly run back to our hotel as we need to catch a flight back to KL. This happened on our last day. Even Wai Leng and Vince is a victim of such tuk tuk driver. In my opinion, that is a very bad impression on Thailand’s tourism industry. Oh well…. we can’t do anything right?

Anyway, travelling by train is much cheaper compared to taxi. If you take a taxi, be prepared to be stuck in a jam. The traffic there is  very crazy. Traffic jam all day long. Condition is at it’s worst during the weekend. Luckily, our hotel is quite near to a train station from airport. So we took the train straight to the hotel. If I’m not mistaken, it cost around 35 baht per person. As for the tuk tuk, the price is usually much cheaper in the morning. The cost of taking a tuk tuk to the platinum mall, chatuchak market or nearby train station is around 20 baht in the morning but around 100 baht at night. So if you want to go around at night, might as well take the taxi cause the price is more or less the same. But always bargain the price with the tuk tuk and taxi driver. But if I have the choice, I would rather take the train. Seriously, me and Calvin were lucky that I could recognise the place and knew the way back to the hotel. Or else, we would be totally lost when the tuk tuk driver turn off the engine and ask us get off the tuk tuk. Damn angry at that time. But I know we were not far from our hotel, so still okay.

One more thing, if you take taxi or tuk tuk in the morning or afternoon, the driver might ask you for help to get free petrol for him. He will take you to a big jewelry shop. Every time the driver brings tourist to visit the shop, he will get free 5 liters worth of petrol. Which is really a lot if one day he could bring like 5 or 6 batch of tourists there. At first, we don’t mind but then on the last day, the tuk tuk driver begged us for help. We have no choice but waste 30 minutes looking at jewelries. Really a waste of time. So if you are in a hurry and don’t wish to go to the jewelry shop, just tell the driver that you have been there previously. They will not bring you there again because the people from the shop will recognize us and the driver will not get free petrol. It is not that we are cruel or bad people but seriously, it’s really a waste of time. But if you have time to spare like us, you can help the driver out for the free petrol.

 

The train ride was quite comfortable. The coach is very spacious, which is good as most passenger has a luggage with them. We reached Ratcharaprop station in like 30 minutes. Really worth the money and time saving to travel from and to airport. I’m sure you do not want to be stuck in a jam and miss your flight back home right? Hehe.

 

The curious tourists looking out the window. I guess at this point, they were admiring the bungalow houses. Hehe.

We stayed at Citin Pratunam, which is really awesome. There are a lot of food stalls just outside our hotel and it’s within walking distance to Platinum Mall. Awesome!!

 

The room is bigger than our Hong Kong hotel room. Oh, it has my favourite shower thingy as well. Happy happy. Hehe. The room is very clean, way better than my expectation. Wai Leng’s room is slightly bigger than mine because there’s two bed in the room. After settling down, we head straight to Platinum Mall. Since it was already late afternoon, we decided to grab some food before starting to shop. There is one food court on the 6th floor of the mall.

 

We have to purchase a card with stored value in it for us to purchase food. Whatever left in the card can be refunded at the counter.

 

This is the place for us to take our cutleries. At the end of the compartment is a bowl of hot water for us to wash our forks and spoons in it. Great for those who are hygienic when it comes to food. I guess food courts around KL should have such facilities as well to reduce the amount of food poisoning cases around town.

 

Our food for the day. I ordered the duck noodle, which was really good. The soup was very clear. I noticed that their dishes does not have much oil in them, which explains all those skinny girls walking around the mall. It is very hard to find a fat girl in the shopping mall. I’m serious!! Calvin was very hungry so he ordered the rice with pork, which is not nice. But he still finished the whole plate of rice all by himself. The power of hunger. Hehe. Pui see bought a bowl of bird nest and a plate of Thai char kueh teow. When we’re done with lunch, we start our shopping spree. We were disappointed when the shops started to close one by one at around 7pm. We decided to walk back to our hotel and purchase dinner along the way from the food stalls.

 

Our dinner for the night!!! First stop was actually the pork satay, which was really yummy. Each of us had like 1 to 2 sticks. We purchased chicken wings to be eaten in our hotel room. After that, we bought fried chicken, fried chicken skin, padthai and others for dinner. In general, the food in Thailand are quite cheap but if you don’t like sweet food like us, please ask the vendor/chef not to put sugar into your food. Even our padthai, a.k.a. Thai char kueh teow, was sweet because the guy put sugar in it. Kind of yucky after a few mouthful of it. I guess the winner of the night will be the pork satay and some fried keropok ikan. Others were only so so.

 

Deane bought like more than 10 t shirt and the designs are really nice. Plus they are really cheap since he bought like a lot. I guess one is around 80baht? The clothes on the second photograph are all mine. I bought 3 skirts for work, one dress and 3 tops. I really love the sailor/sea style at the moment. I always come out from the toilet with my new clothes and saying “I look like a sailor”. Haha. They are quite cheap too. The skirt is like 200 baht and they come in sizes. Although you cannot try them but the sale assistant will measure your waist and butt area and they will tell you which size that you can fit. The blouse is like 150 baht each and the dress is around 200 baht. Really cheap!!

That’s all for the first day. Second day will be uploaded soon. Hehe.

~BuHBaI~