Thursday, June 12, 2008
Amazing Thailand / 7:47 PM
So yes, i'm finally back from my BKK trip. I took a PLANE man. Its considered my first flight since i was very young when i took a flight, so i cant exactly remember anything about it. This time, the view from above was beautiful and i experienced turbulance, dammit. SWISS Air provides very yummy meals and good comfort and the crew were the best. Both from Singapore and back from Bangkok itself. We took our flight at 9pm and landed approximately at 10.45pm. Headed straight back to my cousins place at Ekamai Gardens Condo and just lazed the night away.
Now, to express more on the Bangkok trip, i shall let my memories flow out.
Day 1: 31st May 2008 (Saturday)
We headed for lunch at Crystal Jade at Siam Paragon, which is much bigger and better than Singapore's Paragon. My cousins friend Tony joined us. Friendly chap who travels around the world on his own. Chinese food never tasted so good. The custard tarts and durian puffs stole my heart. Then we headed shopping (not exactly very much) at Siam Paragon. They sell wonderful decorative items for the house such as vases and sculptures. The very first thing i bought in Bangkok with my baht was "BOOKS!" :D yes, i got myself three storybooks from Kinokuniya. I felt so good and obviously couldnt wait to read them. We took photos with almost anything interesting we saw. Chilled at Starbucks with the usual love; caramel frapp! After starbucks, was home sweet home with yummy home cooked food; Sri Lankan and lots of Smiroff drinks with a movie we ended the day.
Day 2: 1st June 2008 (Sunday)
Breakfast is a must at my cousins place. Her daughter Prithika who turns one very soon was adorable and she was the highlight of the trip. We headed to Emporium shopping mall which is pretty close to Siam Paragon, along Sukhumvit Road where my cousin lives. Lunch was Thai food. Thai fried rice with prawns and tom yum soup. Thai tom yum is the best ever, obviously and one thing i love about Thailand is that they are very generous with their serving of praws, which i love with every meal. After lunch we did a little shopping (again not very much) since both Siam Paragon and Emporium are the higher end places for brands like LV, Chanel and Fendi. Headed to Wat Arun temple which is gorgeous. The temples in Bangkok are the most attractive sightseeing place that anyone can visit. The structures of the buildings are tombs show the real life of the kings and queens of BKK. Got a glimpse of the famous Chao Praya River which overlooks the long stretch of shops and market area. Pretty view. Dinner was at home again, and we had yet another round of non-stop chatting and movie.
Day 3: 2nd June 2008 (Monday)
Morning breakfast was a quick one, then we headed to Carrefour at Rama 4 street for some personal shopping and its food galore i tell you! The only thing that made me freak out was that, you cant exactly find milo very easily in Thailand. That scared me since i'm a frequent milo drink-er. I managed to make a number plate for our home. Its so pretty but din take a picture of it. Visit me and you'll get to see. It cost me 600 baht which is around S$24 which is super duper cheap with the designs on wood and gold colour. Lunch was at this restaurant Yam Saap. Thai food. The papaya salad was awesome. The taste lingers in your tongue for pretty long. I got myself my long awaited hair dye and some nice gifts for the kiddos in my family.
The next stop was the Grand Palace also known as the Wat Phra Kaew. Its something like the Istana, and thats where the King resides. Its huge. So huge, that even Singapore looked smaller somehow. The heat was terrible but that din stop us from touring almost every ince of the place. Its incredible and beautiful. The most captivating thing about Thailand from my point were the Guardian Giants that are really GIGANTIC. We stopped by the Big C Supermarket near our place for some last min balloon shopping. We managed to get our cousin and her hubby a heart shaped and superman balloon and we got the little one a tweety bird and winnie balloon! Dinner was Sri Lankan which was way too spicy but the kind that you cant stop eating although you're drooling through your nose. And yet another movie and chit chat session. (:
Day 4: 3rd June 2008 (Tuesday)
Our first stop today was Platinum shopping mall. This place is where the youngsters of Bangkok hang out because its cheap and very big. Its reminded me somewhat of Far East Plaza; only bigger and cheaper. I managed to shop for all of my family and myself of course. Its a shopping galore and we took almost the whole day there. You cant even cover one floor within 3 hours. Its that big. We had a lunch break at the food court. I had Pad Thai which is noodles with prawns and vegetables. I ordered two really unique side dishes that you cant find back here. One was quail eggs actually fried served with soy sauce and the other was mini cakes with toppings. Both were extremely yummy that we ordered another plate of both! Right after lunch we continued shopping again. I liked the t-shirt shop that we stopped by at. Was worth the buy. Platinum sells products on a wholesale basis. If you buy one of the product you get it at the original price, but if you buy three you get it at the wholesale price which is alot cheaper. Aint these marketing tactics! :D
We were shagged to stop by elsewhere so we headed home. Vicky and i decided to take a little stroll on our own near my cousins place. We had a little sightseeing around the area and the small shopping complex nearby and "BOOM" we stopped at Starbucks. Hahaha. Movies and dinner as usual. The massage chair that my cousin has is simple heaven. Woosh!
Day 5: 4th June 2008 (Wednesday)
This was one of the two days that i enjoyed the most in the whole trip. Our journey started off with the Floating Market which was about one and a half hours drive into the deeper section of Bangkok. The experience was extraordinary. Something that you wont get off the normal walking and shopping experiences. Floating Market is one of Bangkok's must see. You shop while sitting on a boat and your bargaining skills must be really good. Like mine :D The things you find at FM is really authentic and so Thai that you almost wanna take all of it home. If i have a second trip i so wanna go back there again! Its sights were pretty sad though. You see people bathing themselves at the river and when your boat moves further you see someone else washing their plates or bathing their dogs, all in that same water. I'm thankful for the fact that we have clean water here in Singapore.
Lunch was at home. We were dead tired but shopping mood was still in the air so we headed to MBK Shopping Centre which is another one stop youth section and also prolly for the older adults. MBK has alot more souvenirs and things for the home. But MBK is a bags galore. If you're like radziah and me, bag freaks, then this is the place for you. You can get beautiful bags at just S$4. Worth the stop. We had starbucks yet again. Its so much cheaper! Since we were all tired to prepare dinner, we had KFC takeaway instead. I decided it was time i started packing at least some of my stuff since we had too many shopping bags clogging the walkway of the room.
Day 6: 5th June 2008 (Thursday)
I got up pretty early though we were all shagged by yesterdays shopping spree. I made breakfast and did some chores. First stop was the Wat Pho temple which is famous for the Reclining Buddha. The RB is huge and made me feel really tiny. His face had this very soothing and assuring look that made me feel happy. I obviously too lots of photos of the place. The other enticing part was the four tombs of the four Rama (no not Rong Ci) who were the kings.
Rama 1: Phra Maha Chedi Sri Sanpetdayarn
Rama 2: Phra Maha Chedi Dilok Dhamakaroke Nitarn
Rama 3: Phra Maha Chedi Munibat Borikhan
Rama 4: Phra Maha Chedi Sri Suriyothai Chedi
Rama 3 was my favourite because of the colour of his tomb; orange :D Gah gah gah. I managed to capture some very nice shots of these kings tombs and also the various buddha statues that were around the temple. You can get pretty freaked when you walk around alone past the tombs. We stopped for lunch at this Chennai Restaurant which had fantastic South Indian meals. It was nice having some indian food after a long time, and their freshly squeezed lime juice was the best i've had my entire life. It comes in such a small cup as its so sweet. Woo! We headed to the Devi Temple just beside the restaurant right after lunch. A total different culture and way of doing things as compared to the Hindu temples back here. After that we walked around the area and the Ganesha statues are stunning and i caught one that was HUGE. Very beautiful indeed and i so wished i could buy him back home. He cost 400,000 baht which is almost S$160,000. -_-!
Dinner was at home, chicken curry and vegetables. We slept early since we were so exhausted after the whole day affair with the sun which din help much.
Day 7: 6th June 2008 (Friday)
We slept in abit today. Had lunch at home and i played quite a bit with the little one. First stop was Phahurat Road also known as Little India in BKK. This was alongside Rama 4 street. We shopped alot more there as well. Our driver took us along Chinatown Street. The place was shining and very colourful indeed. It was a typical street side market area for cheap goodies that you can get at a good rate. Was worth the buy. I managed to get some bottoms at really low prices like S$6-8. :D We headed to Carrefour again to get our nails done. We did a super fast pedicure which costs 50 baht. Thats less than S$4. Right after doing our nails we got to shop at the night market just beside. Its exactly like our "Pasar Malam" only; cheaper. Haha. The tee shirts were a good buy and of course you have all the fake products. Bleah. Dinner was Macdonalds this time. And they dont have nice tasty chilli and other sauces like back here.
We packed all our stuff and weighed our bags to make sure we were on control in case of baggage problems. I managed to stay on track while Vicky went way off. Her baggage totalled to 36kg which is 11kg more than usual. So we had to do alot of re-packing and i was a kind soul to agree to carry 6kg hand carry for her. I started on my new book and slept off soon after.
Day 8: 7th June 2008 (Saturday)
We got up very early for our long drive to the tiger temple. The drive was almost 2 and a half hours. I slept off at least for an hour or so because i was really tired from waking up at almost 6.30 daily. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant with yummy food like Fried Fish, Thai Papaya Salad, Thai Vege (like kang Kong), Giant Prawns and Fishcake. Non of these dishes tastes like what we have here back at home. All of it had a unique taste. We stopped to take pictures at the Death Railway. This was the railway built by the Prisoners of War in 1942.
"In Memory of the Seven Hundred Servicemen of the USA who were Prisoners of War (POW) to the Japanese during WW2 and were forced to build the Thailand-Burma railway Project. In Special Memory of the three hundred and fifty-six who perished from malnutrition, overwork and physical abuse."
I felt pretty scared when i was standing on the death railway to take pictures. I imagined how much torture the POW would have gone through to build the railway. Right after that, we continued our drive to the tiger temple. Its a discreet area in the forest section of BKK. We paid 300 baht for entrance and had a lifetime experience of touching real life, full grown tigers and some other animals. The cubs were adorable and very naughty. This was the other of the two days that i enjoyed most on the trip. We stopped by the Death Railway museum and Memorial sights before heading home to finish all of our packing and clearing up, for we were heading back to Singapore the next day.
Day 9: 8th June 2008 (Sunday)
Had lunch at home and headed to the airport. I was pretty upset to leave the little one, my cousin and all of Bangkok behind, but i also looked forward to coming home and seeing all of my loved ones. We had some mishaps at the airport as Vicky has excess baggage and had to pay up. So right after that we took some photos of tha Thai airport; Swarnabhumi and took our flight back home. Landed at 7pm and my was i happy and full of stories when i saw my family.
& thanks to my cousin sister and her hubby who provided us with a classy and comforting accomodation with good food and a land rover with Mr Anand our driver for the trip that brought us to all these wonderful places.
Phew! Finally i've updated. Its been a pretty long post and i need a break. Enjoy! :D
Now, to express more on the Bangkok trip, i shall let my memories flow out.
Day 1: 31st May 2008 (Saturday)
We headed for lunch at Crystal Jade at Siam Paragon, which is much bigger and better than Singapore's Paragon. My cousins friend Tony joined us. Friendly chap who travels around the world on his own. Chinese food never tasted so good. The custard tarts and durian puffs stole my heart. Then we headed shopping (not exactly very much) at Siam Paragon. They sell wonderful decorative items for the house such as vases and sculptures. The very first thing i bought in Bangkok with my baht was "BOOKS!" :D yes, i got myself three storybooks from Kinokuniya. I felt so good and obviously couldnt wait to read them. We took photos with almost anything interesting we saw. Chilled at Starbucks with the usual love; caramel frapp! After starbucks, was home sweet home with yummy home cooked food; Sri Lankan and lots of Smiroff drinks with a movie we ended the day.
Day 2: 1st June 2008 (Sunday)
Breakfast is a must at my cousins place. Her daughter Prithika who turns one very soon was adorable and she was the highlight of the trip. We headed to Emporium shopping mall which is pretty close to Siam Paragon, along Sukhumvit Road where my cousin lives. Lunch was Thai food. Thai fried rice with prawns and tom yum soup. Thai tom yum is the best ever, obviously and one thing i love about Thailand is that they are very generous with their serving of praws, which i love with every meal. After lunch we did a little shopping (again not very much) since both Siam Paragon and Emporium are the higher end places for brands like LV, Chanel and Fendi. Headed to Wat Arun temple which is gorgeous. The temples in Bangkok are the most attractive sightseeing place that anyone can visit. The structures of the buildings are tombs show the real life of the kings and queens of BKK. Got a glimpse of the famous Chao Praya River which overlooks the long stretch of shops and market area. Pretty view. Dinner was at home again, and we had yet another round of non-stop chatting and movie.
Day 3: 2nd June 2008 (Monday)
Morning breakfast was a quick one, then we headed to Carrefour at Rama 4 street for some personal shopping and its food galore i tell you! The only thing that made me freak out was that, you cant exactly find milo very easily in Thailand. That scared me since i'm a frequent milo drink-er. I managed to make a number plate for our home. Its so pretty but din take a picture of it. Visit me and you'll get to see. It cost me 600 baht which is around S$24 which is super duper cheap with the designs on wood and gold colour. Lunch was at this restaurant Yam Saap. Thai food. The papaya salad was awesome. The taste lingers in your tongue for pretty long. I got myself my long awaited hair dye and some nice gifts for the kiddos in my family.
The next stop was the Grand Palace also known as the Wat Phra Kaew. Its something like the Istana, and thats where the King resides. Its huge. So huge, that even Singapore looked smaller somehow. The heat was terrible but that din stop us from touring almost every ince of the place. Its incredible and beautiful. The most captivating thing about Thailand from my point were the Guardian Giants that are really GIGANTIC. We stopped by the Big C Supermarket near our place for some last min balloon shopping. We managed to get our cousin and her hubby a heart shaped and superman balloon and we got the little one a tweety bird and winnie balloon! Dinner was Sri Lankan which was way too spicy but the kind that you cant stop eating although you're drooling through your nose. And yet another movie and chit chat session. (:
Day 4: 3rd June 2008 (Tuesday)
Our first stop today was Platinum shopping mall. This place is where the youngsters of Bangkok hang out because its cheap and very big. Its reminded me somewhat of Far East Plaza; only bigger and cheaper. I managed to shop for all of my family and myself of course. Its a shopping galore and we took almost the whole day there. You cant even cover one floor within 3 hours. Its that big. We had a lunch break at the food court. I had Pad Thai which is noodles with prawns and vegetables. I ordered two really unique side dishes that you cant find back here. One was quail eggs actually fried served with soy sauce and the other was mini cakes with toppings. Both were extremely yummy that we ordered another plate of both! Right after lunch we continued shopping again. I liked the t-shirt shop that we stopped by at. Was worth the buy. Platinum sells products on a wholesale basis. If you buy one of the product you get it at the original price, but if you buy three you get it at the wholesale price which is alot cheaper. Aint these marketing tactics! :D
We were shagged to stop by elsewhere so we headed home. Vicky and i decided to take a little stroll on our own near my cousins place. We had a little sightseeing around the area and the small shopping complex nearby and "BOOM" we stopped at Starbucks. Hahaha. Movies and dinner as usual. The massage chair that my cousin has is simple heaven. Woosh!
Day 5: 4th June 2008 (Wednesday)
This was one of the two days that i enjoyed the most in the whole trip. Our journey started off with the Floating Market which was about one and a half hours drive into the deeper section of Bangkok. The experience was extraordinary. Something that you wont get off the normal walking and shopping experiences. Floating Market is one of Bangkok's must see. You shop while sitting on a boat and your bargaining skills must be really good. Like mine :D The things you find at FM is really authentic and so Thai that you almost wanna take all of it home. If i have a second trip i so wanna go back there again! Its sights were pretty sad though. You see people bathing themselves at the river and when your boat moves further you see someone else washing their plates or bathing their dogs, all in that same water. I'm thankful for the fact that we have clean water here in Singapore.
Lunch was at home. We were dead tired but shopping mood was still in the air so we headed to MBK Shopping Centre which is another one stop youth section and also prolly for the older adults. MBK has alot more souvenirs and things for the home. But MBK is a bags galore. If you're like radziah and me, bag freaks, then this is the place for you. You can get beautiful bags at just S$4. Worth the stop. We had starbucks yet again. Its so much cheaper! Since we were all tired to prepare dinner, we had KFC takeaway instead. I decided it was time i started packing at least some of my stuff since we had too many shopping bags clogging the walkway of the room.
Day 6: 5th June 2008 (Thursday)
I got up pretty early though we were all shagged by yesterdays shopping spree. I made breakfast and did some chores. First stop was the Wat Pho temple which is famous for the Reclining Buddha. The RB is huge and made me feel really tiny. His face had this very soothing and assuring look that made me feel happy. I obviously too lots of photos of the place. The other enticing part was the four tombs of the four Rama (no not Rong Ci) who were the kings.
Rama 1: Phra Maha Chedi Sri Sanpetdayarn
Rama 2: Phra Maha Chedi Dilok Dhamakaroke Nitarn
Rama 3: Phra Maha Chedi Munibat Borikhan
Rama 4: Phra Maha Chedi Sri Suriyothai Chedi
Rama 3 was my favourite because of the colour of his tomb; orange :D Gah gah gah. I managed to capture some very nice shots of these kings tombs and also the various buddha statues that were around the temple. You can get pretty freaked when you walk around alone past the tombs. We stopped for lunch at this Chennai Restaurant which had fantastic South Indian meals. It was nice having some indian food after a long time, and their freshly squeezed lime juice was the best i've had my entire life. It comes in such a small cup as its so sweet. Woo! We headed to the Devi Temple just beside the restaurant right after lunch. A total different culture and way of doing things as compared to the Hindu temples back here. After that we walked around the area and the Ganesha statues are stunning and i caught one that was HUGE. Very beautiful indeed and i so wished i could buy him back home. He cost 400,000 baht which is almost S$160,000. -_-!
Dinner was at home, chicken curry and vegetables. We slept early since we were so exhausted after the whole day affair with the sun which din help much.
Day 7: 6th June 2008 (Friday)
We slept in abit today. Had lunch at home and i played quite a bit with the little one. First stop was Phahurat Road also known as Little India in BKK. This was alongside Rama 4 street. We shopped alot more there as well. Our driver took us along Chinatown Street. The place was shining and very colourful indeed. It was a typical street side market area for cheap goodies that you can get at a good rate. Was worth the buy. I managed to get some bottoms at really low prices like S$6-8. :D We headed to Carrefour again to get our nails done. We did a super fast pedicure which costs 50 baht. Thats less than S$4. Right after doing our nails we got to shop at the night market just beside. Its exactly like our "Pasar Malam" only; cheaper. Haha. The tee shirts were a good buy and of course you have all the fake products. Bleah. Dinner was Macdonalds this time. And they dont have nice tasty chilli and other sauces like back here.
We packed all our stuff and weighed our bags to make sure we were on control in case of baggage problems. I managed to stay on track while Vicky went way off. Her baggage totalled to 36kg which is 11kg more than usual. So we had to do alot of re-packing and i was a kind soul to agree to carry 6kg hand carry for her. I started on my new book and slept off soon after.
Day 8: 7th June 2008 (Saturday)
We got up very early for our long drive to the tiger temple. The drive was almost 2 and a half hours. I slept off at least for an hour or so because i was really tired from waking up at almost 6.30 daily. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant with yummy food like Fried Fish, Thai Papaya Salad, Thai Vege (like kang Kong), Giant Prawns and Fishcake. Non of these dishes tastes like what we have here back at home. All of it had a unique taste. We stopped to take pictures at the Death Railway. This was the railway built by the Prisoners of War in 1942.
"In Memory of the Seven Hundred Servicemen of the USA who were Prisoners of War (POW) to the Japanese during WW2 and were forced to build the Thailand-Burma railway Project. In Special Memory of the three hundred and fifty-six who perished from malnutrition, overwork and physical abuse."
I felt pretty scared when i was standing on the death railway to take pictures. I imagined how much torture the POW would have gone through to build the railway. Right after that, we continued our drive to the tiger temple. Its a discreet area in the forest section of BKK. We paid 300 baht for entrance and had a lifetime experience of touching real life, full grown tigers and some other animals. The cubs were adorable and very naughty. This was the other of the two days that i enjoyed most on the trip. We stopped by the Death Railway museum and Memorial sights before heading home to finish all of our packing and clearing up, for we were heading back to Singapore the next day.
Day 9: 8th June 2008 (Sunday)
Had lunch at home and headed to the airport. I was pretty upset to leave the little one, my cousin and all of Bangkok behind, but i also looked forward to coming home and seeing all of my loved ones. We had some mishaps at the airport as Vicky has excess baggage and had to pay up. So right after that we took some photos of tha Thai airport; Swarnabhumi and took our flight back home. Landed at 7pm and my was i happy and full of stories when i saw my family.
& thanks to my cousin sister and her hubby who provided us with a classy and comforting accomodation with good food and a land rover with Mr Anand our driver for the trip that brought us to all these wonderful places.
Phew! Finally i've updated. Its been a pretty long post and i need a break. Enjoy! :D
Labels: Amazing Thailand
