Bangkok Day 3..

3 Dec 2010

Time flies and the final day of our trip came quickly enough.. T.T~

Complimentary buffet breakfast was quite good.. forgot to snap a pic the previous day when i'd made quite a nice salad.. sigh..


BTS ticket, kinda like our LRT ones but used touch n go style~

Back to Sathorn Pier and another boat ride~ This time i made sure i was standing on the other side of the boat from the previous day, so that I wouldn't miss seeing everything :D

more 'king's birthday deco'..

one of the piers.. i think they shld look quite pretty at night when the lights are on...

Sheraton Hotel's private pier and ferry

modern monks.. he's actually retaliating at me taking a photograph of him @.@~

pointy roofs show us the direction of the Grand Palace :):)

This time we go down at the right pier -- Tha Chang

Tried this crunchy snack at the market... sweet ones had coconut, papaya and raisins, savoury ones had coconut and spices.. interesting~

After the market (the one selling vegetables, where mum got another pair of shoes at rm9.90) :S, we continued down the road to look at the stalls selling all sorts of weird stuff at the flea market.. This time, yet another guy came up to us and asked whether we were going to the Grand Palace, and 'kindly' informed us that it wouldnt be open for visitors that day and he would recommend we go to another temple that was open to foreigners for that one day only (sounds familiar?), he then started yelling for a tuk tuk on the other side of the road.. this time, we werent abt to get forced to a place that we didnt intend to go to again, so we quickly walked away in the opposite direction~

It was only later that we saw a sign outside the palace grounds saying: Please beware of wily strangers!!! @.@~

The following places are listed as attractions in Bkk.. i have no idea why.. haha..

The pier that the royal family uses~

Silpakorn University~

for your reading pleasure~ :P

and finally~! I thought we werent allowed to enter?? stupid conman.. hmph!

they were having some sort of rehearsal for the King's birthday celebrations..

super hot and sunny, so we hid under the shade

Looks quite grand eh? Wasnt planning on touring the place anyway.. just wanted to see what it looked like.. :)

even the rubbish bins look regal, lol...

guard posts all along the wall of the palace~

multicoloured hedges :):) wonder when i've started liking colourful things so much @.@~

After satisfying my wish of seeing the Palace, it was time to head back to the hotel and grab some lunch before going to the airport for our evening flight..

Aaaahhhh...they say it looks even better in the evening wen the sun sets...

Wichai Prasit Fort~

Grabbed lunch at a roadside stall near the hotel then went back to check out... Bkk is really good for hardcore shoppers.. tat perempuan, my mum managed to get some limes from the roadside even as I was still finishing my lunch :S

After checking out, we still had time to spare before our cab was to arrive, so we went wandering round nearby the hotel, since downtown Silom is a commercial area, it was mostly tall office blocks.. so we ended up in Boots, havent been inside a Boots store since coming back from UK, its something like the Watsons stores we have here, and we all know how much I like wandering around Watsons, so was equally happy to be browsing round Boots.. hehehhe... Next stop was 7-11 of all places.. and we managed to get some last minute souvenirs, and ended up with -20 baht :S:S:S luckily the cashier at 7-11 was so kind and let us get away with it.. :)

Last minute souvenirs... Lavendar & Orchid soap from Boots and Pretz in weird flavours like Ham & Cheese, Beer and Larb (i have no idea wat tat means tho...)

in Bkk, you can find candles and joss sticks inside 7-11, never know when you need to do some last minute praying eh?? :)

Our hire cab came at 2pm sharp, just like we ordered, then we were off to the airport... fell asleep in the taxi.. expected after all the walking that morning..

view of part of the airport.. wonder wat those mounds are for?? fengshui? @.@~

To be honest, Bangkok isnt high on the list of cities I'd like to revisit.. for one, its toooo hot.. and there seem to be people who would like to scam you at every corner.. even the shopping gets tiring after awhile, cos of the constant need to bargain and money seems to flow like water cos you're spending in hundreds and thousands.. :S I still prefer KL much much more... hehehhehe...

Bangkok Day 2..

2 Dec 2010

Woke up bright and early (super early at 5am KL time~ cos forgot to change my phone's alarm time to Bkk time which is one hour slower than us T.T~~).. Too early till i had time to laze around in bed and play a few rounds of Mega Jump (iPhone app) before going for our complimentary buffet breakfast...

Started our second day at Chong Nonsi station again~

Had planned to visit the Grand Palace and its surrounding sights that day, so our first stop was Saphan Thaksin station to catch the shuttle boat to the touristy area of Bangkok :)

One of the many grand-looking buildings around town~

Funny looking car/bus~

Thats right, we went on a trip down the Chao Phraya river, didnt go all the way down tho.. We were supposed to take a touristy boat ride for 150 baht per person, but a funny turn of events led us to a 16 baht per person water taxi ride that brought us to town all the same :D enjoyed the breeze immensely!!

Some of the sights along the way:-

Hilton Hotel~

Pagoda~

Vege boat..

Temple boat~

one of the taxi boats.. :)


Memorial Bridge


Wat Arun, Temple of the dawn.. *wow*

We were supposed to alight at Tha Chang where all the touristy sights are located.. but accidentally got down one pier too early at Tha Thien, and ended up at some kampung looking area... @.@~

Dried fishy stuff.. If you love ikan bilis & udang kering, maybe this would interest you :P

does this look like fish to you??? yeah it is, i asked.

Tuk Tuk~

It was at this point that we got accosted by some thai, mat salleh-marrying, fashion designer lady who suddenly came up and told us all abt this temple we had to visit that was not usually open for foreigners, blah blah blah.. shld have known she was fishy.. where got so nice ppl out in the middle of nowhere... we ended up being escorted up a tuk tuk and taken to some secluded temple tat was under renovation =.=

On the way there, i spotted my favourite bank... hehehehhe...

The king's face plastered all over the place, cos his birthday was that very weekend..

Wat Suthat

We also saw this funny monument called The Giant Swing, the story goes that the Thais used to have a competition where ppl climbed to the top to reach for bags of money, but the event has since stopped due to the high number of deaths... :S

me looking very unlike me.. but what the heck, better than no pics of me.. muahhaha...

wonder why we cant have pink taxis here.. they brighten up the roads... :)

and we arrive at this supposedly royal temple... macam kena tipu leh... O.o...

and all of a sudden a guy pops out from nowhere and starts showing us around the temple.. he said he's the head architect in charge of the renovations (im still a bit sceptical, but he was very convincing~) and we had no choice but to follow him round while he gave us a private tour and forced us to take pictures =.=

undeniably, the structures were all very detailed and breathtaking~

sculptures that were a gift from China, supposedly~

mosaic bell tower :)

statue of the head monk of Thailand~

We wanted to continue on to the Grand Palace but were told that many roads were blocked as soldiers were patrolling the area to prepare for the King's birthday celebrations :( the 'architect' then persuaded us to go to this place called Exotic Centre and literally pushed us into another tuk tuk..it took me till the latter part of the day to realise that it was highly probable that we were being scammed into going to a place that we didnt want to go to in the first place.. but more on that later~

ppl there like to ride on motorbikes like this :D

giant statues by the roadside~

do not be cheated into going to this place if ever you go to Bkk!! the salespeople actually force you to buy stuff.. grr... I had to spend rm4.50 (luckily not more..) to get rid of the irritating promoter who kept following me around and pestering me to buy some of the overpriced stuff.. grr..

saw lots of rubies there tho, apparently Thailand is famous for them...

with the elephant outside Exotic..

After the very disappointing Exotic Centre, we made our way to MBK (Mah Boon Krong Centre) (actually, we shared a cab with a complete stranger who just hopped into the same cab as us and also paid the fare for us O.o...) Before the trip, everyone who had gone to Bkk before had told me to visit this place, shopping heaven they said, but personally, i prefer Platinum Mall~

The stuff you can do there:-

Laugh at the funny translations.. someone tell me what is Pock Sauce Sauce???

Have a super nice 1 hour foot reflexology session :):):)
much cheaper than at home.. only rm25 per hour!

Check out the food court, they use this canggih system where you swipe a card then pay at the cashier when you exit... :)


Eat super yummy beef noodles and chicken skewers + fried rice :P

force people to take photos with their food!


Drink free Thai Milk Tea!!!

and of course, shop & shop & shop some more!!!

4 pairs of shoes for me~! :D

Not many pics after that.. we went round every floor then dragged ourselves back by taking the BTS from National Stadium station, which is right next to MBK back to our hotel~~ Had street food for dinner :) was looking forward to trying fried crickets but didnt see any stalls selling it the entire trip :(

Fried chicken?? Noooo.. its fried pigeon.. very nice~~~

SWEET corn :):)

its already been cut nicely into flat strips so its easier and not as messy to consume.. funny why we dont see it being sold here like that @.@~

We also had dessert, thai style ice kacang which had lots of stuff inside, but I forgot to take a picture if it :* cant remember what the ingredients were already... Quite a satisfying meal i might say... watched some tv (our hotel had cable tv, whee~) and then went to bed to get enough rest for day 3 :):)