My 2nd trip to Bangkok..since. hmm…year 2000 with sharon san and zhe san.that was like 5 years ago lor..! so scary how time flies. Okie..chotto matte..this is not supposed to be a nostalgic blog…heh.
9th Oct 05
Well, 1st day was a Sunday and we went chatuchak.. missed it the other time I went so this time confirm must go lo. Nearest station was Mo Chit station which is at the end of the train line. The local guide told us not to take taxis or tuk tuks..coz sure jammed. Surprisingly, the train was very very packed. Hmm..i remember 5 years ago, when I took the train then, the train was super dupa empty.. we were like the only passengers most of the time. Anyway, Chatuchak was crowded and hot.heat.hot.squeezy.sticky.cramp.heat.hot. They do have nice stalls there but only if you can tahan the heat and can totally ignore strangers breathing onto your hair while browsing. Those leather sandals from leather ark are sold at 199 baht at Chatuchak…that’s like about S$8..yasui ne. but quality I dunno la..it’s cheap lor..bought 2 pairs of that. Chatuchak was like a maze..think you’ll have to walk many many rounds before you can cover every tiny lane and section of the market.
At night, we roamed to siam centre which was a more high end shopping place where we ate at this place called Viet Cuisine. Think we were too hungry or something, when the food came, we realized we actually ordered too much food. The whole table was full but we did finish the food in the end. Hah. Tom yam soup was good.. ya..what is tom yam soup doing in a Viet Restaurant.?! Guess it’s localized already.
10th Oct 05
2nd day was the optional half day city tour which we signed up for. Went to see some temples and took the river boat ride to see the “floating market”. After the ride, the guide said we were going to some gem factory. Huh..then the “floating market” wouldn’t fit into our schedule, I asked her. Kaoz..the 2 pathetic boats floating on the river just now was the floating market.. She said that now Thailand is more advanced and people don’t frequent the floating markets anymore so it had since died down. The 1-2 boats were there just to yi si yi si show tourists. Wahha. Okaay. Nothing to write about the gem factory coz got no money to buy anything from there.
The later part of the day was all shopping at MBK. And oh ya, went for a pedicure session at this newly opened salon..called Hanako. it was lousy. 300 baht and no nail art and they never even complete the pedicure with a protective varnish. Painting skills no good also. Think baboosingh more professional lor! Haha. Never mind. Went MBK and saw maincure at 150 baht with nail art…those they handpaint the designs themselves one….urgh.haha.
Night time was Oil Massage time…at a massage place right next to our hotel. The parlour is called “Miss Puke” …. Spent a bit of time arguing whether its pronounced as Miss PUKE (as in literally vomit that “puke”) or Miss Pu-K.. in Jap pronouciation... in the end, we just called it Miss Puke..vomit “puke”… hahah.. I abit ulu la..1st time try massage and didn’t know have to be totally naked coz it was a full body massage. So quite paiseh coz like kena molested by the masseuse. Worse, we couldn’t communicate coz her English not very good and my thai is..err. stops at sawaDka, kapunka. Got a shock when she took off the towel and started massaging my bust.errr.RA. cut. Then she asked me if I wanted a “towel”. I was like “ oh..no need, I got towel.” Showing her the towel I am holding. She asked 2 more times again and I replied her the same thing, thinking why she kept asking the same question. Trying very hard, she held up her hand like holding a hose and sprayed it over her head making the “sshh..sshhh” sound, and said “ you want to towel?” shower la!! Faintz.
11th Oct 05
Last day in Bangkok….! Think it’s just nice la..if we stayed any longer, would have been quite boredified. As I was telling sharon san, I wasn’t in a hyper shopping mood. So wasn’t particularly excited. Or maybe after my china trip, I’m more impressed with countries with beautiful scenery.
Ate at Hard Rock Café for lunch..oh my god..the mudpie was like $8 sing dollars only… think in Singapore was like more than $15? That’s was naz said..wouldn’t argue with him since he’s a dessert lover. Heh. It was good…yummy..
Slacked around at the hotel lobby for 1 hour or so before we set off to the airport. Novotel Hotel was at so called Bangkok orchard road. So most of the streets are 1 way and super jammed. After 20min of drive, we peered out of the windows to check where we were..and we were only directly behind our hotel lor!
Yup.reached Singapore only at about 11.30pm…tired and when I thought of work the next day, can imagine how reluctant I was. Tried to psycho myself that I don’t feel very well..sore throat coming….mc coming..
What I bought (shun bian calculate my spending as well):
- 1 pair of flip flops – 60 baht
- 2 pairs of sandals – 380 baht
- 2 bags from MBK – 398 baht
- 1 bag from chatuchak - 450 baht
- 2 tops from siam square – 398 baht
- Lingerie from Truimph – 3400 baht!!! (busted all my $$ here.)
- 1 cape cardigan - 490 baht
- 2 nail art stickers - 98 baht
- Lousy pedicure – 300 baht
- Tshirt for bro – 230 baht
- 2 belts – 480 baht
- food – 400 baht
- Oil massage – 500 baht
Total: 7584 baht = about $316 sing…. this is the result of my controlled spending liao..i try not to buy implusively and buy only stuff I will use..and not buy coz it’s cheap..unlike my 1st Bangkok trip. 199 baht…everything at 199 baht…and I couldn’t stand the temptation and bought like a lot of white elephants, some till now I haven’t used it at all…. Or maybe now I start to earn my own $ liao..so will tend to spend my okane more wisely… simtia.haha…
Just a sidetrack to what I observed in Thailand. While I was browsing some stalls selling souvenir T shirts, I heard the store keeper speaking in fluent jap to the jap tourists and greeting them domo arigato, konnichiwa profusely. If they browse and in the end never buy, they will tell the tourists “daijobu daijobu” meaning..it’s all right..it’s ok. When I went over to this particular stall indicating interest in buying the T shirts, the shopkeeper’s attention was glued on the Japs and we were like transparent to them. Even after they had sayonara the Japs, they just stood there looking around, not bothering to serve us. Till I asked, how much is the T shirt, only then he looked in our direction and started attending to us. Doshite doshite. .if they were part of the customer service survey now often done in Singapore, and we were mystery shoppers, they would have failed lor.confirm.
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