Bangkok, the Land of...

Sawadeekup.. Just came back yesterday from Bangkok, the land of Smiles and 'Pad Khao Prao Moo' (Mince Pork with hot basil leaves)! :p

It wasn't a very 'smooth' trip.. We were a bit disoriented before we even board our flight to Bangkok! But i'm glad we did go ahead with this trip.. We were motivated by our source of 'strength'! :p

To see picture, click HERE

Day 1 22 Jan 2005 (Sat)
Me and Joel were hesitating about this trip due we were troubled by some issues going on. There was a point where we have even thought of forgoing our Bangkok trip to get things straighten out.. Fortunately, we managed to get things sort out and we left for the Airport after dinner. We were schedule for departure on SQ to Bangkok at 8.30pm. We were lucky!! (",) We were on SQ's Jubilee (Boeing 777) and we were spoilt wth so many choices of entertainment! There were about 20 movie channels, Nintendo games and MINISTRY OF SOUND radio!! Thumbs up for SQ KrisWorld! :) Upon arrival, we made our way to the taxi queue and were despatched a cab. On our way to our hotel, Baiyoke Sky, the taxi driver 'started the ball rolling' for our trip of bargainning....
Cab-Driver: "To hotel? 300baht?"
Me: "No. Meter."
Short and sweet huh? Anyway, most Bangkok taxi drivers will try their best to 'slaughter' you whenever given an opportunity! So be very careful... (but even if they really 'slaughter' you, you can't do much also... But you can still try your best to bargain! That's what Thailand is all about..) Upon checked in at Baiyoke Sky (Thailand and World's tallest hotel), we were upgraded to their Superior Suite Room. Now, let me tell you what i think of this hotel... When you see their exterior, its like "Waaaaaaa...... Tall." but the moment you stepped in the Suite Room, it's "Waaaaa.... huh......??". The Suite IS big but.. Like i expected, the furniture is old and rundown.. Well, i'm on budget so i have to bear with it.

Look what they have done to our bed... So sweet...

Day 2 23 Jan 2005 (Sun)
The thing special about this hotel is that their breakfast is served on its 77th floor with a spectacular view of Bangkok (It was nice in the beginning but after 3days of having the same breakfast variety, we were sick of it)! After breakfast, we wasted no time and made our way to the famous weekend market, Chatuchak! There were a few shops that caught our attention for being outstanding and one of them were where we chilled for a drink! Cool..

We stopped for a cold drink at this happening shop in Chatuchak.

We didn't spend our whole afternoon at Chatuchak. After 3-4hours there, we left for our hotel. We were just too tired to continue with the shopping in the horrendous weather..! We napped the whole afternoon away, only waking up for dinner. Yes, Pad Khao Prao Moo for dinner! :)

Day 3 24 Jan 2005 (Mon)
We woke up very early this morning.. To catch our early 'worm' tour to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. It's 1 1/2 hour away from Bangkok (depending on traffic). Basically, we joined this tour to see the 'genuine' 140 years old floating market. We took a ride on the longtail boat to the market and transfer to the sampan (100baht each for the ride) for a more detailed tour of the market. You will see alot of touting here.. Shopvenders will pull your sampan to their shop and throughout the boat ride, we encountered more than 5 'pullings' and we DO NOT enjoy touting at all, it's irritating!

That's how crowded the canal is..


Here's a rare sight of the market. A POLICE Longtail boat!

All tours that includes Floating Market will start out very early. How early? Pick up time 6.30am! That's how early it is.. We booked a half day tour and we were glad we made the right choice.. By the time the half day tour ended, both of us were tired (again) and dehydrated. But we are motivated..! Motivated to locate our source of 'strength' in Bangkok! Instead of going back to Baiyoke, we asked the van to drop us at World Trade (now known as Central World Plaza). You see, Joel and me were on a mission here... To find our source of 'strength'.. :) We did hunt down our 'strength' and we did 'receive' it! It's not cheap but it's all worth it! Check this out!

Left: Joel's cap is a vintage collection series!
Right: Me's cap is just a normal series but one of the best looking ones in the shop!
*grinning away*

Now that i'm back in Bangkok after several years later, i went hunting for my favourite Thai local brand, GreyHound and PlayHound. How can i miss their shop when i'm in Thailand?!! GREYHOUND and PLAYHOUND.. It's a local Thai brand, quite well-known, not cheap, not very expensive, very funky, it's like our Song+Kelly. It's a brand Jane will like.. Jane, do you hear me?! After much trying, i didn't manage to see anything i liked. But Joel did... The sales showed him a top and it looked very nice and sleek on Joel. We bought it for CNY which is coming soon in 2 weeks time! Nothing for me from this shop.... *haizzzz*

Day 4 25 Jan 2005 (Tue)
We woke up this morning, not knowing where to go. After much discussion, we decided to go Silom, Patpong and Suan-Lim Night Bazaar. We left Baiyoke for Chit-Lom LRT station by foot and it took us about 10mins. When we reached Silom, we were again, clueless, where we should go. We walked around aimlessly and we finally settled down for a 'Fruity' drink at Smoothiemania.

Chilling at Smoothiemania in Silom.

From Silom after Smoothiemania, we left for Suan-Lum Night Bazaar which was said to be open from 3 pm till midnight. We walked for about 15mins and when we reached the bazaar, barely 20 shops were opened! Disappointed and sweaty, we took a cab back to our hotel for a rest. Yes, napped again. Due to some festival going on at our hotel area (Pratunam), the traffic around the hotel was terrible. We had to walk all the way to World Trade to flag a tutuk to Patpong. And in Patpong, we walked around looking for an affordable japanese restaurant and to our dismay, most of the restaurants weren't cheap! To us (from what we see there), Patpong seems to attract and cater more for Japanese. Yes, we saw alot of 'horny' Japanese men walking around and hunting for clubs to have fun in.. Amazed? Not really... Japanese men are notorius for being a 'horny' b a s t a r d! :p Not knowing where we could have dinner, we left for Suan-Lum Night Bazaar hoping to find a ray of light there. Well, it wasn't what we expected at Suan-Lum. It's dead there.. We could hardly see crowds dashing here and there.. We left there shortly after. What a disappointed day we had!

Day 5 26 Jan 2005 (Wed)
It's our last day in Bangkok. Didn't do much. We stayed in our room watching 'Gigli' and checked ourselves out for Airport. On our way to Airport, our taxi driver tried to 'slaughter' us. Being in Thailand for 5 days and after so many rounds of bargainning, we let the taxi driver 'slaughter' us. It wasn't much also.. 40baht? How much is that? Approx. S$1.60...? I'm too tired to argue or bargain so we just let him be but at the same time, ensuring that we are not over'slaughter'!While checking in our luggage (we went and came back in 2 bags only. Are you impressed?), i saw this notice and can't help but showed you what SQ is up to. SQ's way of encouraging punctuality.

SQ new slogan...

With 1hour to spare before borading, both of us went menu-hunting for Pad Khao Prao Moo and we were determined to eat it for the last time (but seriously, Krabi served better pad Khao Prao Moo). And to our delight, we had our craving fulfilled.
Onboard the plane for our flight back to Singapore, we noticed this particular stewardess, CC (we know her full name but we don't want to embarass her). She's weird! She's not graceful, she walked like a tomboy and she's so damn skinny that the SQ baju kurung doesn't look nice on her! Worst of all, she doesn't carry her poise well at all.. But she turned out to be a very nice lady (except for all these flaws), for she accompanied her colleague till her collegaue's boyfriend came. So sweet... But too tomboyish to be SQ stewardess!

Overall, me and Joel prefer KRABI. We might go back Bangkok again for Chatuchak and our 'strengths', but we will not stay more than 3 nights for our next trip.. :)