what can i say.. i love every minutes of it. the hot weather, the busy road, the crazy taxi and tuk tuk driver, the friendly Thai people..
you will fall in love with this city, no matter what condition it is. though it's not much differ as KL itself, but the feeling of being foreign in a foreign country will make you love it no matter what.
Thursday, 12th Feb
we (me and ezma) starts our journey to Bangkok at about 830pm. the flight took about 2 hours, but we arrived there around 940, Thai time, an hour late than Malaysia time.
we were being greeted by a tour company (i don't recall the company name). they offer us a cheaper Taxi ride to our hotel in the city, the First Hotel (rather than the special limousine taxi available there at the airport). as they write down our hotel name in Thai on a piece of paper (easier for the non-English speaking taxi driver, just show to them the paper and we are good). these people offer us a good offer of tour of the city with a far cheaper price (the usual price would be about 2000 baht per tour package, but we only got it for 25 baht per person.. cheap right?! private tour plak tu)
so we choose the temple and city tour schedule on 12pm the next day
we got to our hotel with an Altis Taxi (Thai uses Toyota cars as their taxi, ade Camry, Altis, tapi xde Vios), check in, have a good rest and planning on what to do the next day
simple hotel room
btw, in the flight, we bought ourselves a prepaid card which are far more convenient for us in Bangkok. we know Maxis roaming will cost us more, so, we bought our selves True prepaid which we plan to use there in Bangkok, and it's cheap too!
*Budget for the day (for each person):
Taxi to hotel: 215 baht
Toll: 45 baht
Prepaid simcard: 50 baht
In flight drink: 50 baht
Tour: 25 baht
TOTAL: 385 baht TOTAL: 385 baht
Friday, 13th Feb
we woke up early for subuh prayer (5am dah subuh ok), and went back to sleep. hehe
ok.. ok.. we got up at 8am, get ourselves ready, and head down to get breakfast. we decided to get heavy breakfast, so that we don't have to search for a place to eat for lunch. for 2 days, we will only get breakfast and dinner (gaye diet ke?)
breakfast at the hotel was nice. i tried the usual western breakfast and also a yummy keow tiaw goreng. by the look of it, it looks dull and common, but the taste if it.. perghhh.. x terkate.. sodap! (sorry, no picture.. terlalu sedap.. hehe)
at about 10 am, we tried to walk around the hotel area, changed some RM to baht, when a taxi driver offer himself to take us around town. at first we decline, saying that we are having a tour at 12pm (takut lambat). but, he keep on saying that he can bring us back to the hotel by 12pm, and offer to take us just close by with only 20 baht. so, we agree.
the first place he bring us was the Gemstones shop (again i forgot what it is called, but this one is the biggest of them all). we have the chance to see all the beautiful gems in process of becoming a beautiful jewelleries. Rambang mata siot!! at that time i wish MyLove would be there (since he hasn't buy anything yet for cincin/gelang tanda, and it was a valentine weekend).
the front view of gemstone gallery
i did bought something. at first i thought i would give this as presents, but, somehow, i changed my mind.. better keep these to myself, since 2 of them are my birth stones (and it is so damn pretty).. hehe
later on, the taxi driver brought us to a thai silk tailor place, James Tailor Fashion. this place i tell you, try to cekik your money. the service is good however, they served you personally (though ezma got himself a salesperson from Nepal, i've got myself the one from Bangkok.. yey).
but the place is too expensive. i asked them to make a jacket from a Thai silk, but the price is like 6000 baht (complete tailored, and they can finish it by the next day). i ask for a better price. yes they did offer me such, but with a Japanese silk instead (baik aku pegi Jepun).
so, my advice, the price of the real Thai silk is not that different than in Malaysia, seriously!
so, x payah gi jauh2 la. plus, the material is so hot. ezma got offered of printed Thai silk, 1 meter cost about 900 baht.
in the end, we didn't buy anything. and we already late for our appointment at the hotel. our Taxi driver took us back to the hotel with a pretty fast speed, and we pay him accordingly (not the one he promise earlier). he too offer us to take to Chatuchak the next day. we agreed. though we didn't ask for his name, we remember his taxi as ‘Taxi Altis Kaler Oren’.
at the hotel, we met Sam, our tour guide (he's real name will be longer, and i can't recall it). he introduced himself, telling us the tour that we are having and headed to his waited tour driver. guess what?!! we were having our tour in a VOLVO!!! hahaha. gile x? for RM2.50.. tour naik VOLVO plak tu.. haighh.. never in my imagination that the tour will be in such. puas hati...
suppose the tour cover 3 temples, but since one of the temple was closed for renovation, we just went to 2. but, it was very worth it!
on our way to the first temple, we saw some people grouping (siap pasang khemah and tido lagi) around the Prime Minister building. thought that something's gonna happen soon, we ask Sam what is it all about. he told us that a rally gonna take place during the weekend. we just keep quiet until he told us that everything is safe, they won't hurt any tourist.
we pass the Department of Agriculture where a real rally took place. Sam said that these are the poor farmers, asking the government to give them money. after a bad cold weather during the winter, they didn't get any sort of income, only depends on the government to give them money.
(**but later as we pass the Prime Minister building place again, Sam corrected us that these people are actually farmers who wants the government to give them money. he suggested us to sit and sleep there is we are out of money.. haha.. funny!**)
we did ask Sam how many times in a week will there be any rally.
"Everyday is a rally day"
Good answer Sam.. Good answer.
first stop: Wat Pho Temple.
we pay 50 baht each for the entrance tickets. Sam bring us around, explaining all sorts of stuff, the history, what's inside each tomb/monument, the sculpture, and finally when we reach the area with a lot of tourist, we know we have reached the ancient place, THE LEANING BUDDHA
this leaning Buddha is the 3rd largest of them all, and it is plated with gold. REAL GOLD!
and at the bottom of its feet, beautiful mother pearls are plated with such a pattern. it's huge.. it's breathtaking.
then, Sam tell us the traditional ancient ritual of donating in the black bowl as a way to heaven. we have to put in coins about 1 satang in each of these bowl (approximately 200 of them). we can even bought the coins (2 baht) before the procedure take place. i didn't buy them though, no small change, so i'm sharing the coins with ezma. so, we will only be halfway there.. hehe.
the end of 200 bowls
I did skip a few bowl (as i didn’t have enough to complete all) until Sam told us that if you put the coin at the last bowl, you will yourself get a handsome boyfriend. HARAPAN TINGGI TU.. ezma took back her last coins from the middle semata-mata.. aku pon letak la jugak.. haha
outside the temple the were a small praying place for Buddhist, where the are a few Buddhas with different gesture. Sam asked us, which day were we born, and we have the same answer - Monday. Monday Buddha shows a gesture of one hand up at the waist level, meaning family first. then Ezma make a suggestion that anyone born on tuesday is a lazy person (because of the leaning Buddha). and saturday will be a wild person, because of a Buddha with 7 headed snakes.
Buddha have two famous gesture, one with the one hand up (as a family first gesture) and another one 2 hands up (as stopping of wind gesture). Sam remark that along Phuket beach there's a lot of these 2 hands gesture Buddha, adding jokingly that the 2004 Tsunami still come and attack Phuket beaches. (hehe.. so Buddha didn't protect Thai then.. hehe)
next temple was Wat Benchamabophit or they called it as Marble temple. it is largely made of marble and was design by Italian architect. Entering fees is 20 baht each
we went inside the temple where we had the chance to see the beautiful windows imported from Italy. and the seated golden plated Buddha. as we about to leave the temple, a group of monks enter and prayed at the special platform in front of the Buddha. we just keep quiet and watch the event with such an honour (bukan hari2 bole tgk monk sembahyang).
inside Wat Benchamabophit temple
we went for a walk around the temple compound. there are some graduated student from nearby University taking photos around the area. such a great place for graduation pictures. lucky them.
Sam bring us to a place to give food to sacred catfishes nearby at the compound. we bought some bread about 50 baht (huge bread), and proceed to the manmade river. erghhh. geli tengok ikan keli besar, warna putih plak tu.
so huge! there are some black colour catfish as well. i'm doing it happily (macam orang jakun), pigeons came too untuk menyebok jugak. Sam said that we look so crazily happy feeding the catfishes and pigeon. well, bukan hari2 bagi makan kat ikan/burung kan..
after hanging around the place for a few minutes, we then went around the city. Sam bring us to several gemstones shop (but we didn't buy anthing.. aku dah beli dah tadi), stopped at tourist centre (for him to sign some documents) and finally dropped us at the Hotel at 4pm.
a kid try to sell flowers to us from our Volvo window. he walks around the traffic and stop at each car
such a hot day. we were tired.
but we have still more to come later in the evening.
at around 5 pm, we were being pick by a driver to go for our Loy Nava Dinner Cruise. we were the last pickup, so, we didn't have a best seat, and the van were full of mat sallehs. as the driver made his way through the jam, we get to recognize more roads, easier for our own navigation later at night.
we finally arrived at the boat around 6 pm, and headed to our seats. behind our seats are an Indonesian couple from Yogyakarta. i forgot their names, but i remembered the wife works as a medical lecturer at private medical university in Yogyakarta. mind you, they are on their honeymoon (though they already have 2 kids..)
this trip was enjoyable. our boat was the best as:
1. the food are served on our table (not buffet). do request for Halal food when you made the reservation
2. the boat was the traditional rice barge (not like other modern looking boats. sume org jealous tgk boat kitorg)
3. the scenery was breathtaking. AMAZING! (they have 2 trips, the sunset cruise and the night cruise. we took the sunset cruise which is unbelievable)
the table setting
the Food
the Entertainers
the Captain, Head Waiter and Mat Salleh Boss
the bill
do made your reservation online as it's much cheaper. i really appreciate dealing with Khun Pornthep for the information and the help he had given me during the reservation period. He's good!
but my disappointment was that the food were not as spicy we believe the Thai food should be. well, as the Boss (he's English btw) made his round at each of the table, he did ask us how we find the food. i did tell him the food was a bit not up to my expectation, and he understand for us being Malaysian we do like spicy food. he explain that most of the diners were European tourist, so he can't really made the food too spicy. we understand him, and congratulate him for a beautiful dining experience.
then, 10 seconds later, one of the waiter brought us a small plate of green chili paste. haha.. perli ke ape ni?? haha. obviously la pedas nak mampos. haha. but we take it as a compliment.
after the dinner cruise, we asked our van driver to stop us at Pratunam night market for a shopping. this place is no different than uptown shah alam or uptown kota damansara. the only difference is, it is between 2 rows of strip clubs!!!
haha, pulak tu, strip club x reti tutup pintu. i can see from outside the girls dancing on the pole(s), and ade jugak yang tunggu depan pintu. their promoter were all standing in front of the clubs, promoting the girls to passerby. mat salleh, pak arab, even us girls with tudung, belasah je promoting their girls. i couldn’t take any photos there.. takut sbenarnye..
to shop here, you really have to know how to bargain. some of these sellers really put up higher price, just because it's a tourist place. but, lucky us for being Asian (people really thought as if we were Thai, i wonder why?) we kindda know of the actual price of these items. bole la bargain cket2.
after about an hour, we made our way back to the hotel. taking the BTS Skytrain for the first time. we walked to Sala Daeng station, and head back to Ratchathewi station, and walked back to our hotel. We had a good night rest.
inside BTS skytrain
walking to our hotel from BTS Skytrain Ratchatewi Station
room sweet room
*Budget for the day (for each person):
Taxi city tour: 30 baht
Prepaid credit: 90 baht
Wat Pho: 50 baht
200 satang (coins) to heaven: 2 baht
Wat Benchamabophit : 20 baht
Loy Nava Dinner: 1424 baht
BTS Skytrain: 20 baht
Hotel for 2 nights : 1600 baht
TOTAL: 3236 baht
TO BE CONTINUED..
ps: still waiting for ezma's pictures from her camera.. lambat betul minah tu upload
2 comments:
jealous ok?? huhu!!
sambungan coming up
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