So It Kinda Works Out!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Bangkok 21June to 25June ...The trip that almost got cancelled

Bangkok Prelude

We had planned for our trip to bangkok since the beginning of the year but some things are just so unpredictable..

+ January - gathered friends, find room and tix
+ February - collected money, booked air tickets($168 per person with Jetstar)
+ March - buy insurance ($21.30 per person with MANY MANY terms and conditions...you can tell i dont believe in insuarnce rite)
+ April - wanted to book room but riot appeared, wait for riot to go away
+ May - still waiting for riot to go away, lots of decision making from all of us( go or postpone or cancel or change destination)
+ June - Most of us had decided to go ahead with the intial plan, booked rooms finally, changed $, packed, fly:)

In a way we are lucky. By end of May the riots had already cleared up, streets cleaned, no more fire bombs and the thais were also eager to get on with their lives.
There were many times we felt like giving up on the trip(and money we have put in)but now i am happy to say our decision to go ahead was right!:)

Bangkok Day 1... Touch down and shop!

About 2.5 hours from SG to BKK..

Our plane to bangkok was less than half occupied...you can tell ppl are still shunning Bangkok

Touched down at 150pm SG time...1250 BKK time

Took a 6seater(? bigger than normal) taxi to our place for about 700 baht(S$30).
Almost took an express bus which was more expensive than the taxi...Note to all: Take taxi.
Because there were a total of 7 ppl(including the driver)poor deyun was chosen (by the cab driver..haha) to sit at the back with our lugguages.

Lugguage stopper for the day

After 30min we arrived at Tango, our hotel/apartment place at Pratunam. The place was recommended by forums and blogs and has good reviews on travel sites. It is a relatively new building and most importantly, no haunted/ghostly experiences/feedbacks..haa.

S$53 per room per night...includes delicious breakfast i will nv forget:)
Also, the front desk administrators speak basic English so communciation was quite alright at the check-in.

15minutes walk from Tango to Platinum Mall...have to cut through Indra Square and Pratunam Market(big) to see the building.

We were hungry and lost looking for Platinum..Went into City Complex located within Pratunam Market to look for food but the foodcourt was quite died. After some direction asking we found Platinum Mall...in the lift!

The first thing to do was to cure our hungry stomachs.
Lunch at Platinum Foodcourt..

Sharkfin soup for about S$7..

Mad cheap satay-like bbq chicken sticks everywhere in bangkok..
Get the ones from roadside stalls they are the more tasty ones:)

No pics of the inside of Platinum Mall...we were too engrossed with the shopping.
Imagine 6 levels of shops after shops..small squeezy walkways and many young thais there.
After 4 hours of intenive shopping, we moved on to Pantip for AnW!!

Beary beary miss AnW

Waffle meal for about S$5...totally worth it.

Happy meal..

Went to Suan Lum after dinner...night market with many souveniers. Yup, its as boring as it sounds. But the fun part was our tuktuk ride!! loves tuktuk.

Cheaper stuff at the alleys...

Mad hot even at night..

Tuktuk ride...S$5
Experience....priceless

Had a thai massage at the end of the day with CZ. Very very stretched and loosen up..about S$7 for the good experience

Bangkok Day 2... Chinatown, KaoSan, MBK and lots of dirty water

After the first day, my camera had no battery and i brought the wrong charger...knock head..So these are pictures koped from Sharon and PG.

Went for the Chao Praya River ride for about S$8..heartpain ex cos it's not worth..
Actually we took the ride to get to the Grand Palace...but by the time we sailed to the Grand Palace it was lunch and prayer time so it was closed for the next 1 or 2 hours -___-"

So near yet so far...

Anyway, we moved on to Yaowarat aka Chinatown for lunch...according to our itinerary
Lunch at Nam Sing..

1st grade birdnest S$43

Delicious and sinful...2nd time we had sharkfin. S$21 a pot serves 2 ppl

After lunch...Walking in the baking hot Chinatown

Lanes and alleys of wholesale accessories, bags, hats..much lesser clothes than Pratunam and Platinum.
Most of the time, if i remember correctly, we were siam-ing pushcarts(or mobile food stalls)and motorcycles at the alleys. Walkways wthin the Chinatown wholesale market were very narrow and we were competing with the carts and wad not for walking space.

Next stop...Kao San Night market.
Took public bus 53 from Chinatown to KaoSan...abt 15min. S$0.30. Passed by Flower market and Little india, Grand palace, Ferry terminal. So if you're planning to go to these places you can take this bus.
Very interesting and 'local' experience to take the public bus. Glad we did:)

Mango Sticky rice for 20baht...oh Thailand Otah is quite nice too!

More pictures taken by pengguan

Lots of angmohs there...things not very cheap. But that is where i fell in love with the croaking frog. which i later bought at Indra Square for 120baht

Rub its back with the stick and you will get frog croaks sound..haha..yes silly

Not exactly sure if the place we went was part of Kao San night market because we took a bus and walked to the place and we arrived rather early at 5pm..So the night market wasnt really up yet. But one obvious thing was the area was too touristy for me. Angmoh prices, pubs, massages...not the kind of night market i wan to be:(

Anyway, we decided again to move on with our itinerary(we'd moved on until the next day's itinerary le)to go to MBK. Famous shopping paradise in Bangkok. Also famous for 'need to bargain before buying'. Nothing much for me over there...oh except that sloggi bras were half-priced cheaper than in SG. But similar to SG, bras without wire are rare.

It got interesting at night:)we were so enclosed inside MBK we didnt know it was pouring crazy outside. By the time we were leaving MBK, the streets were flooding about 1/2 wheel level high? Hahaa...wad a sight and experience. All the way from MBK to our place it was flooding.

However, thanks to the flood, we had the chance(sort of forced) to take the skytrain from MBK back to our place. The drama didn't end here.

When we reached the station nearest to our stay, we didn't know how to walk back to our place. Because of the flood or late timing or both, it was hard to get a cab. Furthermore, cabs we managed to flag either refused to use the meter and/or didn't know how to get to our hotel..

Drama after drama, we stopped at a hotel near to our place(as displayed on the map) but got lost walking in the alleys. So we had to walk in the drizzle and puddles to search for it and after somemore direction-askings we finally got back to our hotel.

Ever since that day, we have been asking cab drivers to stop us at Indra Square where we are more familiar with the walking directions to our hotel. Haha.

Bangkok Day 3... Siam Paragon, discovery center and MBK again
Perhaps we had walked for long long time the day before, our feets were aching on the 3rd day.

Roughly walked Siam Paragon and Discovery..searched for Plaza 29 but it seems to be somewhere in outerspace -____-" either we don't understand each other's english, or the place was burned down during riot. Ended up at MBK again but me, Sharon and CZ didnt shop much..just chilled at Starbucks...and then chilled at a restaurant place in Food Avenue that gave out free ice tea to tourists. Haaha...its actually a nice experience relaxing, having a drink at a foreign place:)

Thai iced tea very very sweet by the way...and filled with lots of ice(which didnt help with reducing the sweetness level)

Seafood dinner(just beside Tango) at night..about S$12. average seafood but their fried egg was really good!

Bangkok Day 4...Platinum and Calypso Cabaret

Went back to Platinum mall to complete our shopping there. Because day4 was 'buffer day'(meaning no plans) so we went back to our unfinished shopping.

Crepe for abt S$1! Platinum basement

Went to Asia Hotel in the evening for Calypso Cabaret a.k.a Ah Kua Show...1200baht incld a drink.
All worth it..

After buying tix, we went to the night market behind Asia Hotel for dinner:)
Unforgettable wanton mee(S$1.30) and giant bbq chicken stick(S$0.50) discovered over there!

Also sells roti prata, seafood

Coconut icecream 10baht...2 scopes with 3 toppings..happy:)

Using my pathetic 3.2mp handphone-camera...

Not ahkua this one haa

The prettiest ah kua there is the one on the left..erm in my opinion. i m sure Sharon and Guanteck have their favourites haha. Boobs beside me

Bangkok Day 5...Fly Home
Very long long post i m too sian to elaborate any further. Shall end this entry with a group photo. Tata

Labels: Bangkok.. loves