I just returned from Bangkok about 2 weeks back. It was my 1st time there and I stayed for 5 days. Bangkok has always been one of the places that has always been "so near yet so far".
Went there with my family, which was fine with me cause I'm pretty broke after my few trips this year. This time around I'll do my travelogue in a different style. It will be in a form of information or fact-file style (if you get what I mean). Later, I'll do a short itinerary of my stay there and then I'll try to do a short review for each of the place I visited.
Travel Date: 17th to 21 June 2009
Airline: Air Asia (thanks to them I've flown pretty often. I think I've only flown with MAS twice in the past 6-8 years).
Hotel: The Heritage Hotel, Bangkok (Its 3 Star hotel with quite good facilities, including free net access!). Its located in Silom area, meaning where all the Corporate HQs are located and right beside the BTS train (50m only). Paid 6,600 baht for 4 nights as part of its stay 3 night free 1 night promotion. There are cheaper places, but I liked the location of this hotel. Would I consider it value for money? Yes, of course! The rooms were clean and new and the rooftop pool is kinda nice. I'll be doing a review of it on TripAdvisor.com soon.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrived at airport - Hotel 500 baht. Checked in, rested about half an hour before having lunch at a stall outside our hotel. Cheap and quite good.
Took the train from hotel (Chong Nonsi BTS Station) to Siam, which is about 2 stops away. Its a shopping district with lots of malls and little stores. Managed to Shop our way down to MBK (something like the MidValley of Bangkok, but not as big) before realising that my mom's phone was missing. Realised that she got pickpocketed when we were walking thru the huge crowd at Siam Discovery Centre. Stopped at the Tailor at MBK. Mum and Sis made suits each. Shopped till about 7.30pm(Thailand time) before taking the train back to our hotel. Took a quick shower bofore going down to Lek Seafood (Round the corner) for dinner. Food not bad, maybe a 6.5/10, price decent as well. Went back to hotel.
Later at night,at about 10.30 pm, went out with my sis. Walked to Patpong Night Market, which was about 10-15 mins slow walk from our hotel. We literally walked to another BTS station. Night market sold pretty standard Bangkok tourist stuff. Prices are quite unreasonable, so bargaining skills are needed. Bargain at least up to 50-60% off. Got back to the hotel, with super weary legs at about midnight.
Day 2. Up at 7am to have breakfast and to prepare for another long day of walking. Took the BTS to the Saphan Taksin station and walked to the River Jetty Pier. Bought the tickets for the Chao Phraya River Cruise at 150 baht per person. Allows unlimited travel on their ferry up and down the river for the day.
Ferry arrived and left at 9.30am. Our 1st stop was at the Grand Palace jetty. The tourist ferry service has a special shuttle bus and guide waiting at the pier to take us to the Palace as well as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Free of charge!!). Entrance fee is 350 baht per person. Paid and then realised I couldnt wear shorts in the grounds. For to wear long pants from their clothing rental office. Our guide took us around the temple as well as the Palace grounds and explaining the details and the historical stuff. It felt like a personal tour as we were the only people that got off at this pier earlier. The Palace as well as this temple grounds is huge.
We had lunch later outside the palace grounds at a nearby market. Insisted the guide join us for lunch as he was told he cannot have lunch with tourists. Since it was just us, we told him its alright. Food was cheap, although tasted different. maybe thats some real Thai food after all. The bill came up to about 250 baht for vegetables, duck, chicken, pork dishes, rice as well as drinks for 5 people.
Later we were taken to the Vimanek Mansion which is about 15 minuted drive across bangkok town to visit the Teakwood Mansion. Entry fee is waived if you buy the grand palace tickets. Here, it housed lots of teakwood furniture as well as intricate carvings. Also housed lots of gifts that were given to the King on his birthday, some made of gold.
On our way back, we also passed by the Parliament grounds as well as the Democracy Square where the tens of thousands of Thais protested a few months back. Later we we visited this jewelry factory where we could see how some of the jewellery like rings and necklaces are made. Stuff sold there was pretty expensive, thats for sure.
The Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha temple tour ends there, but our nice guide offered to drop us off at Wat Pho, our next destination.
Wat Pho is home to the world's largest reclining Buddha as well as the famous Thai School for massage. massages here are slightly more expensive, but its supposed to be the origins of Authentic thai massage. Entrance fee here is I think 200 baht per person. Not soo sure about it.
Next, we walked to the nearby pier and took a river boat across the Chao Phraya river to Wat Arun. This costs 3 baht per person one way. We took our boat across and entered the Temple grounds. Wat Arun is known as the temple of the dawn. Here we can climb up the stairs up to the top of the temple. It was almost 6pm when we reached the top and the sun was about to set in Bangkok. The view was pretty awesome as we can see the river as well as Wat Pho across the river and the Bangkok city. Cost of entry is about 50 baht per person if i remember correctly.
We took the river boat across the river and waited for our boat to take us back to our Jetty this morning. Took some bought lots of foodstuff along the way back and snacked till we got to the Siam area again for my mum and sister's suit fitting. After they did their fitting we went shopping around MBK again and bought more light snacks. Went back to the hotel for a shower and a break. Had dinner at the same roadside place where we had lunch yesterday.
Dad wanted to rest so the 3 of us went out again. Took the train to Saladaeng station (where Patpong is) and walked the night market again. Instead of taking the train, we walked back to our hotel. Another Damned tiring day.
Day 3. Had the luxury of waking up a bit later today as we were gonna meet my father's cousin later. Woke up at about 8.30 before going down for our breakfast. My father's cousin, C, picked us up and took us out of Bangkok city. We visited some temple about 45 minutes away before she brought us to meet her husband in his factory. He runs an aluminium smelting comapny. As such, were were taken around the factory to see how they smelt aluminium. And when we were taken into a warehouse where the bars are left to cool, the places looked so shiny. All the aluminium bars are so so shiny and reflective! Meand sister were thinking, if only these were all gold bars instead...
As her husband was busy, we decided to go out somewhere to have lunch. Ended up driving back towards the city and stopped at a shopping mall called Central, somewhere outskirts of Bangkok. Had lunch at some Thai restaurant which served some really spicy food. After lunch, C drove back into Bangkok and dropped us at Platinum shopping mall in Pratunam.
Pratunam is the heart of ready to made fashion shopping. It houses almost all of Bangkok's clothing wholesalers. hence shopping at Platinum was all about clothes. Nothing else. 7 storeys of clothing shops drove my sister and mom crazy. After that, we took a cab towards the Siam area where the shopping onslaught continued. We had dinner atone of the Chinese restaurant inside MBK before going to the tailors for the final fitting. Once it was done, we got the suits back and took the train back to our hotel.
Once again, after showers and half and hours rest, we took a cab to the famous Suan Lum night bazaar, about 10 minutes away. Its actually within walkng distance from our hotel but since its at night and i didnt really know how to get there, we felt it was safer to take a cab there and back. Suan Lum sold most of the usual stuff we've seen throughout our whole trip. didnt find anything surprising or out of the ordinary. Went back after an hour of walking about. Legs KO-ed again.
Day 4. Woke up at 7.30am for the usual breakfast. Was getting tired of their spread. Didnt show much variety. Anwyays, we took the train back to the pier and this time we decided not to take the tourist boat. We took the normal boats which the Thais take to work or to run their errands. It was really cool to take these boats as we really felt like we were living like Thais. Got off at the Memorial bridge Pier at a cost of 13 baht per person. Then we walked about 15 mintues before we found the place. The Flower market or Pak Khlong Talat. Its literally a wholesale market selling fruits, vegetables, spices as well as flowers.And thats what we were here for. To see the flower market.
There were lots and lots of stall selling flowers at drop dead prices. A huge bouquet of roses (just wrapped in newspapers lar...) were going for 30baht only. All there were so many colours to choose from! So many different types of flowers were available as well at rock bottom prices. My sis ended up buying a bouquet and last we counted, there were 40 stalks of roses for 30 baht.
After walking the flower market, we took a cab to Khao San road. Khao San is a famous place in Bangkok where most back packers will stay. However, sad to say that, in the day time, mos tof the shops arent open, so there wasnt much to see.
From here, we went to find the Erawan shrine, which is a famous place in Bangkok as a lot of famous people has stopped by there to offer their prayers. The place was small, but it was packed with people. And since Erawan shrine is just next to the Siam area, guess where we headed to next. As we got tired of lugging around flower and other stuff, we decided to ehad back to the hotel to leave our stuff there. Went back and had lunch at I-residence hotel, which was beside our hotel. After that it was back on the trains and off we went shopping again at the Siam area. Wanted to visit the Famous Aquarium in Bangkok, which was the biggest in Asia, but at 800baht per person, it wasnt worth it. Spent more time walking around then. Went back to the hotel to have dinner at a nearby restaurant serving Shanghainese food. Food was decent, and was priced similarly to KL restaurants.
Now after dinner, we headed to Patpong one more time but this time, the whole gang together. Did some more last minute shopping and walked our way back. Legs GG again!!
Day 5. it was my last day here in Bangkok and i was determined to make the most out of it. Woke up at 7 am dragged my mum and sis along with me. We went to Lumphini Park by cab, which was beside the Suan Lum Night market. Lumphini Park is the biggest park in Bangkok and I'm sure there was plenty of sights to absorb.
I was right! There were so many different things that people were doing there. Most were jogging or doing their daily walks. Some had yoga groups, tai chi groups, wushe groups, pilates groups, line dancing... There were groups of old men and women just sitting down having breafast in the park together. The most interesting thing that we encountered was that when the national anthem was played around int he park, every1 stopped what they were doing. Dead in their tracks. and they sang the national anthem! Even the foreigners did the same. and so did we. Oh a little caution to those who are afraid of reptiles. This place is crawling with monitor lizards. some up to 1.5m in length. No kidding. They siwm up and own the lakes and sun themselves of the grass. I think they've gotten use to the humans surrounding them and vice versa.
After our little walk around th park, we walked pur way past Patpong in the day and it looks dead. We stopped by one of the coffeeshops to have breakfast and then we bought some food stuff along the way as we walked our way back to the hotel.
Once we got back to our hotel, we took a shower and got ready to check out. C came to pick us up so we can have lunch with them before they send us off to the Airport. So we had lunch at... of all places... Ah Yat Abelone in Ramada Hotel, Bangkok. We told her that this place can also be found in Kl but it isnt very famous. Over here, this place is packed for breakfast, esp for its Dim Sum. Food here was alright, nothing spectacular, but i thought it was a little on the pricey side. Duh....
ANyways, C sent us to the airport and we thanked her for her hospitality and waved her goodbye. And now, for the long journeyback to KL. With extra heavy luggages this time around....
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So yup, there is my travelogue. Kinda brief, and sorry if there arent any pictures. have not gone about editing them yet. Will post them up on Facebook soon, so stay tuned.
Till then,
Boodyboy,out!!!
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