Bangkok Part 2

Satuday and Sunday, 14 Feb – 15 Feb

We woke up earlier.

yeh, that's the damage i made to the room

It’s Valentine Day, so we had a Valentine Breakfast.
What’s the different you ask? Same je. I start off with the usual English Breakfast (some toast), get heavier with a mixture of light mee goreng basah, nasi briyani and tom yam, and end up with sausages and some fruits. Actually that’s the whole serving.. hehe

Valentine Breakfast

As the clock almost reach 9 am, we waited for our Taxi Altis Oren who promised us to take us to Chatuchak Market today. But, a few other drivers in front of our hotel keep on persuading us to take theirs instead.

Not feeling like waiting long, we opt to take the BTS Skytrain instead.

BTS Skytrain, Ratchatewi Station

The ride took us approximately 20 minutes to reach Chatuchak Area. We were greeted with great scenery of Sakura flowers and queues of colourful taxis. Ooo.. sgt cantik!

Beautiful

Walking around Chaktuchak will take the whole day. You can found all usual and unusual things around here. The counterfeit watches and jewelleries and bags are so real, that you will make you drool over them, and never felt sorry for having fake things.

the outside market

some kids playing musical instruments out here

And here, you really2 have to bargain. Make them sell their things with the price you wanna pay. They will surely decrease the price, especially if you are the first person in their shop (cause we are, and we did it) and still people thought us of being Thai. Seriously, do we really look Thai to you?

Though the heat and the weather do make you feel exhausted and tired and lost in directions (just asked people if you’re lost), you will find shopping is actually a stress relieve activity, and eventually will make you broke!

Meeting place if we were lost

We went back to our hotel around 12 pm (because we need to check out by 1pm). But we opt to different type of transportation. You see, since we were at a foreign land, might as well try all sorts of public transportation available. We thought of taking a MRT (it’s a subway train) to somewhere nearer our hotel area, and take a tuktuk back to our hotel. Btw, the MRT will take us at the other side of Bangkok, and return back to the city centre.

But since the traffic was so bad, we decided to take the BTS Skytrain (after the MRT sub) back to our hotel. We officially have made a huge tawaf around Bangkok!

MRT Subway Chatuchak Park Station

After checking out and saying goodbye to our comfy room, we left our bags at the bell boy there.

Our Hotel, and our hotel Guard (seriously he's a lazy one)

We finally got the chance of taking a tuktuk. Since we want to spend the rest of our day in an air condition place (it has been hot since we came), we choose MBK mall that’s actually very closed by. We were charged 40 baht (after so much persuasion).

The ride was unbelievably crazy! It’s a must when you are in Bangkok. Try skali cukup la.

Tuktuk driver and the crazy ride not to be miss

He stopped us here at the unique monument across MBK. scary isn't it

At MBK, where it’s a Valentine weekend, the mall is flooded with people. But, couples are quite vary around here. I wonder why.

Entering the mall required us to undergo some sort of metal detector machine. Obviously with lots of metal with me (hp, camera, belt etc) will make it beep, but i was let go. The guard there will observe the numbers flashing on the metal detector to know if we were bringing any sort of weapon or worst bomb into the shopping complex. But, we are cool. We don’t support terrorism.

Supermarket items were on fix priced. No bargain around here. as i'm waiting for ezma to pay up her stuffs, i had a chance to watch a trick show by the supermarket staff (actually a Japanese family asked the staff to do a card trick, i’m just happen to be around them, i love the Japanese attitude, very optimistic and enthusiasm).

It’s funny, and pretty cool! we walked around the mall, where we find craft and souvenir section. The prices are not that far different with chaktuchak or pratunam market, but we were shock that we can also bargain here (baik aku shopping kat sini je. Dah la aircond).

But with the damages that have been done earlier, i just bought a few stuff just to complete my shopping list.

Inside mall still got the King's potrait. very respect la to the King

Finally, the moment we were waiting for. A MASSAGE!

First we were thinking of getting our massage at Silom area. As we were approaching MBK exit area, one of the promoters gave a piece of peper, where there's a promotion on their massage place. We didn’t think long, and asked him where the place is. He guides us to the place, Relaxation, still inside the MBK.

We were greeted by the owner of the massage place (i think he’s a man, though he did looked a bit like a girl) and asked us which package that we will be interested of doing. I was about to choose Thai massage when Ezma reminded me that it might hurt and we still going for a walk later on in the evening. So, we choose relaxation massage instead (same price as Thai massage). The place was full of Mat Salleh, mostly opted for foot reflexology. We were showed to a closed curtain area for 2, and the masseues asked us to change to their special clothing, and served us Thai tea (which i find quite nice, Ezma thought otherwise).

I did have a blast being massage by the Thai girl (except at one area where i giggled so loud. It tickles.. i know where my sensitive area is now.. hehe).

The massage from head to toe, for about an hour, it’s 30% like Thai massage, but it’s still relaxing enough for me. Ezma didn’t find it great (cause she thinks it’s still hurts when they kepak2 our body parts.. hehe). Me.. I LIKE IT!!!

The price is still reasonable. 10% discount of their usual price. After paying, the owner gave us some sweets (that taste funny) as a compliments.

Massage place

The room and the tea

The clothes

Next, we need to find a dinner place (we only had our breakfast for the day, and my stomach already make some sound as i'm getting my massage). We’ve been asking people where is the best place to get Thai Halal Food in Bangkok, and people keep on saying Soi 3 at Nana Area.

So, we headed there by the BTS Skytrain. We kindda in our ownland as we miss our station (we suppose to change train at Siam Station but instead we are 4 stations away when we realise this.. haha, mmg xtau pon, tibe2 je perasan dah kat tempat lain). We headed back to Siam, which is kindda a big station here, we almost miss our train again. You see, near Siam station, there’s a concert going on, and i was busy snapping away photos. When we realise that we were at the wrong side of the station (and nasib baik x naik train lagi), we eventually got to the right one (which is actually nearer to the concert area), and almost miss our train. Selamat.

A Concert

Nana area is actually famous for its night clubs/bars, and most hotel are around this area. We headed to Soi 3 (Soi is actually Jalan, so Jalan 3 la), and there, we found out that we were no more in Bangkok.

Nana area

Budak mintak sedekah

Where were we you asked? Guest it, we were in Arab land. All signs were in Arab / Jawi. And most people here were Arab people. Some of them even speak malay to us.. Hampeh..

Soi 3 aka Arab Land

Still, we walk around to find any Thai looking place in this Arab land. We found one which looks almost Thai, though the sign outside their shop says ‘Restaurant Thai Seafood Istimewa’. After a good tawaf around the area (we did stop at one shop, and asked him who is the owner, his answer an Omen.. blah), we stick to the Restaurant Thai Seafood Istimewa.

This shop, is a bit different, as we have to walk through their cooking area first (where we found most of them were mata sepet ala2 Thai la jugak). The waiter there show us to the small dining area, where we were seated at the end of the table. There’s only an Arab family of 3 in the shop. That makes us the 2nd customer of the restaurant. We asked the waiter where he’s from, his answer, Myanmar.. xpela.. jiran jugak.

But the waitress who took our order is a Thai, and boy, how hard to communicate with her. We asked different thing, her answer was totally different. Last2 tunjuk gambar je la, nasib baik menu ade gambar and a little explanations.

The food is quite nice. Tom Yam was good, Sayur campur goreng sangat sedap, Telur bungkus pon Ok, but we asked for daging masak merah, we got ourselves daging masak oyster sauce. But, since we were hungry, and our nasi share this time was quite a lot. We finished everything. Nyam2 (later another group of Arab friends come into the restaurant, and we think they only order Udang bakar for dinner, without rice ok, tercabar rasenye)

The Food

Finally, we went for a walk around Nana area, still with a lot of stalls along the road, selling T-shirt etc. The word McShit is pretty popular among me and Ezma now.

Stall along the road

Bangkok at night

We’ve got into a taxi (traffic was worst than here in KL), headed to our hotel (to take our bags) and get into another taxi to get to the airport.

Bye2 Thailand

Bangkok airport is one of the busy airport. I can’t imagine how during the December riot, it was full of protestor making themselves at home here.

Because of the Valentine mood, the airport management made a special bench for photography session. Ahhh.. so much for love in the air. People were queuing to be at the bench. Funny!

Valentine bench

we choose to sleep at the Musolla (though Ezma thought it may not be a good idea since they might lock the door).

We tried to sleep outside at the benches, in front of some restaurants. People were actually still walking around and eating in the restaurants. We decided to head back to the Musolla and get some rest.

Mane ade lock, belasah je la. Tgk2 ade la one Arab girl, and 2 Thai staff sleeping there as well. And we can hear another Malaysian men too trying to get a rest there at the men side (men side is actually wider than women side, the Musolla separated men and women area by a tabir). Pulak tu bukan tido, berborak je.

Airport Musolla

I can’t really get any sleep due to:
1. the lights were seriously too bright
2. the 2 Malaysian men were talking rather loudly 3. xde bantal though i already made a couples of my clothes into a bantal
4. xde tilam, sakit belakang. Dahla baru lepas massage

So at about 3pm, i have a good walk around the airport all by myself (ezma dah berdengkur dah).
A lot of mat salleh sleeps at the benches, and some of them even on the floor. Some of the shops still open at that wee hour, even the tour place that we get our city tour the other day were still open. The police guards were walking around the airport, taxis were still queuing outside.

So quiet

At about 6am we check in our flight. Walk around the duty free shops after immigration, and realise we were at the wrong side, again! And it almost 7am (flight is at 710am). Lari gile ok.. almost made it, stewardess dah nak panggil name kitorg dah. Hihi

Beautiful arch, after immigration point

However, the flight was delayed by 15 minutes (because the airport crew forgot to take out the bright that connects the plane and the building). Ade jugak mcm tu ek.

Bye2

My wajib drink in the plane

We arrived at LCCT approximately 1030 am.

Sampai dah

The End Budget for the 2 days (for each person):
BTS Skytrain from Ratchatewu to Mo Chit: 25 baht
MRT from Chatuchak Park to Sukhumvit: 34 baht
BTS Skytrain from Asuk to Ratchatewi: 25 baht
Tuktuk ride to MBK: 20 baht
Massage: 360 baht
BTS Skytrain to Nana Station: 25 baht
Dinner: 300 baht
Taxi to hotel: 40 baht (meter taxi)
Taxi to airport: 200 baht
In flight drink: 50 baht
TOTAL: 385 baht TOTAL: 1079 baht

In Total we spend 4700 baht (that is around RM500) for leisure, accommodation, food and transports.

Shopping wise, do bring extra cash or better own a credit card just to be safe. U can guess how much i spend for shopping only.. haighh..
I’m officially broke now.

Another thing is people we met during the trip were astonished to find us 2 friends have an adventure in Bangkok. The Indonesian we met were a couple, the Arabs we met were either in a group of friend (men) or family. Therefore, people might either think us of being a Thai or a Malaysian (only Malaysian girls are brave enough to embark this kind of journey, without men escort)

Oh, another thing i'm regret of, i didn’t have a chance to meet my friend Casey who is still studying in Bangkok! He’s busy with classes and concerts. When he's finally free from any work, we already at the airport. So sad. Hope to see him in March before he flies off to Egypt and US.

we are thankful nothing happen to us during the trip, though rumors has it that there will be a riot that weekend. but riots only happened this week and still going on. and believe me, we've been touring along this road to get to one of the temple.

picture from Utusan Malaysia 25 February 2009

you see the monument inside the picture? this is the closer look, the one i took:

the closer look of the craving on the monument

though Bangkok is still one of the safest place in the world. the people of Bangkok have been the nicest people i've met so far.

Next planning: Wedding! for real 2 months je lagi.. die only!