Thailand Bangkok 4th-8th Nov 2015 - Day 4 & Day 5

Day 4

Saturday !!!! Chatuchuk time !

Take the BTS to Mo Chit, around 20 mins of travelling, once you reached, just crossed towards the park, thats where the Chatuchuk market starts.

Reached around 10+am, thought would be quite crowded but surprisingly not as crowded as I imagined.

Seems now all got put up the cost of the items and the stall owners would not bothered to bargain with you. If you want then you pay, if not, they let you walked away.

 Along the main road of Chatuchuk market, I find it easier to navigate from the roads.

Heading into the countless rows and columns of Chatuchuk market, tends to be pretty cramp with people.

Lots of cute stuffs for the ladies.

Cups and cups.

Cute display.

Food ! Big head prawns.

Along the roads a concentration of the eating stalls, not that expensive.

Our lunch, $300 baht

Cute small models, $69 baht for the vege and $110 baht for the teacups. 

Very nicely made, wished to buy more but the cost adds up quickly....hahahaha

Oh yeah, the stall that sells the vege models also got sell the cabinet that I mentioned that was bought in Big C for $550 baht while here only $330. So hor, if you need any of those small models, can goto Chatuchuk first before buying it in the mall or supermarket.

Fish cake tibits and thai milk tea

Gotten one half-length curtain for $350 baht, not a bad design.

After shopping for a few hours, decided to head back to rest, around 4+pm liao. Headed to Terminal 21, dropped at Asok BTS station. The design is based on the airport signage of the different big cities like London, US, etcs. Terminal 21 is just like a normal mall, to me personnally, hence we just took a short stroll around the place then headed back to Siam station.

Dropped in to Somboon Seafood restaurant at Siam Square One, around $1000+ baht.

Overall not bad but I think alot of people ordered the steam fish, which we did not, next time better as my wife kept looking at other's fish, hahahaha.

We spotted Hello Kitty Cafe Siam Square One !!!!

Hello Kitty Cafe, level 2

 The cart at level 1

The main entrance to the Cafe.

The area around here got alot of youngster, much like our Far East Plaza area, pretty nice to just hang around this place.

Next we just strolled around Siam malls, typically malls, but the Paragon sure got alot of people, strange.

Siam Paragon

And thats it for Day 4, tomorrow flying back.

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Day 5

Nothing much today, woke up and went for the breakfast. Decided to take the cab at the counter outside the hotel, think there is a tie-in with them.

One price, $500 baht to the airport, don't bother to bargain, just hopped onto the cab itself. Surprising the travelling time was around 35 mins only, WOW. Reached airport around 10:30am, flight at 12:15am.

Some wefie in the airport.

In the departure hall

The rest was just the flight back to Singapore.............Hope you enjoy.

Foodstuffs for the company's people

Color pencil, cheap and alot, just nice for the coloring book.

~ END ~

Thailand Bangkok 4th-8th Nov 2015 - Day 2

Today main focus was to visit Erawan Shrine and the rest of the places would be ad-hoc.

After breakfast, we decided to pay a visit to Jim Thomson House, just round the corner. Hotel guest got 10% discount and Jim Thomson provides golf cart as a form of shuttle service. We opted to stroll to the place as it was still early.

Upon reaching the place, found out that a tour of the place needed $150 baht per pax with their guide explaining the tour, around 40mins.

As we never visited this place and Jim Thomson being a famous person here, might as well.

Can see dancer dancing in the main courtyard leading into Jim Thompson House, which is some sort of museum.

The place to gather before the tour of the House.

 The House.

Pool in the backyard.

Alot of art pieces collect by the man himself.

More exhibits in the side small houses.

Collections of small antiques.

The beautiful garden.

After the visit to Jim Thompson House, we proceeded to our main focus today, the Erawan Shrine. We took the BTS from National Stadium to Chit Lom, just 2 stops but need to change at Siam station. Then walk back via the sky bridge towards Siam as the shrine is in-between the stations.

The BTS

As usual the shrine was damn crowded and fully restored after the recent bombing incident. Can see more guards around the area but business as usual for the thais.

The offering can be bought in the shrine compound, the lady there speaks Chinese, typically got the $25 baht or $50 baht. We took the $50 baht package, one small candle, 4 small flower rings and a pack of incense.

My wife paid for the dancers as well to return favours she asked last time. Actually wanted the 2 dancers package but they said no, minimum 4 dancers, wah......2 dancers around $250+ baht and 4 dancers close to $400 baht. Best was that they got 8 dancers, so 2 person with 4 dancers each would need to dance once with all 8 dancers. Efficiency !!

We followed what others mentioned on the web, pray to the front facing to the main gate side first then goes clockwise, praying at each face of the Buddha and depositing the flowers. As for the candle, not too sure, so just light up and placed at the first face area.

After the main task had been completed, we set off to Partunam Market, Platinum Fashion Mall and look see look see the famous Wan-Ton mee.

Along the walking towards our destination, spotted Big C Supermarket mall, which to the delights of my wife, she loved walking supermarket.

But before that, we settled our lunch first at MK Restaurant, which this place happened to have one branch as my colleague told me that every time he visited BKK, sure must eat at MK.. Ordered the $599 baht special combo, added 2 more vegetables and 2 rice. Overall very good and the portion of food was nice and fresh, one of the most economical makan place.

During lunch, my wife was feeling abit sick and not good, thinks she had caught a slight cold, maybe from me as I was recovering from one. She did managed to perk up abit during the supermarket strolling.

As we would be walking back here, decided to visit the rest of the places first then come back to buying stuffs from Big C.

The famous Pratunam market

The famous Wan-ton mee, we went all the way into Pratunam market and out due to a wrong placement in Google map. As we were still full, did not went in to savor the mee.

Platinum Fashion Mall

As this junction while stepping into the fashion mall, my wife was feeling damn sick. No choice we made a detour to rest at Star Bucks Coffee. Finally decided to go back to hotel as she was too sick, however, we still detoured to Big C to make a stroll and bought some stuffs. Surprisingly, she was feeling better in Big C. 

Following were the spoils of the stroll:

$300 baht per box, other places were slightly more expensive.

$550 baht, later we found out that the price were cheaper in Chatuchuk market at $330 baht

Route of travel for the day.

Went back to hotel around 3+pm and my wife rested till around 7+pm, decided to head out to Jim Thompson for dinner. Approached the front desk asking if we need to book, the helpful front desk staff called for us and assured us that there were still tables at the restaurant and called for the shuttle.

Very cool to ride in the golf cart, very similar to the famous Tutu car.

Had a nice dinner at the restaurant, the starter and the green curry were my wife's favourite. The pandan chicken was not really grilled but more like stuffing the chicken meat into the pandan leaves.

Managed to goto the shop and gotten a Jim Thompson hat, hehehehe.

$600 baht

Went back to hotel and rest and luckily my wife bounced back to action the next day.

Thailand Bangkok 4th-8th Nov 2015 - Day 1

It had been quite awhile since my last family tour, finally settled to go Bangkok (BKK) as I never been there before. Quite a shocked as many had been there countless times but seriously visiting BKK never appeared as quite appealing to me.

I always thought as BKK as another typical Asian country, warm weather with typical shopping mall and just eating and shopping with a strong currency that's all.

Booked SIA at a discounted price of $212 per pax, but timing not the best:

Fly there on 4th at 4pm, reaching around 5:30pm.

Fly back on 8th at 12:15pm, reaching around 2:45pm.

After hunting around with friend's advice and tripadvisor, finally booked Holiday Inn Express Siam. Take note that the display best offer I gotten at $86 excluding tax, could be further discounted by being IHG member - www.ihg.com

Finally damage is $82, with taxes around $100, that was after I registered as IHG member, free registration.

Day 1- 4th Nov 2015

Finally the day had came, we made our way to the airport earlier as my wife wanted to visit the Sunflower Garden in Changi Airport T2 departure hall.

Cab fare to the airport was around $28, hmmmm, was the price always so expensive, seems to be getting higher and higher.

Reached around 2:15pm, checked in, luggage in and off to the garden.

Truth to be told, the garden was actually not bad, could see bees and butterflies flying around.

After all the fun photo taking, it was time to explore the beauties of Changi Airport.

I would say there were quite a few beautiful spots in the departure area.

After which we are on our way to BKK, reached around 5:30pm local time, BKK is 1 hour slower than SG.

The queue for immigration was damn long, by the time we reached luggage claim area, it was around 6:30pm. Went out, off to Gate 7, and gotten a local AIS SIM card for 7 days data at $299 baht. Originally my friend advised to get it at Changi Airport, but it was sold out, hence no choice, SG cost $13, almost the same cost, why not right?

Was thinking should I take the airport rail or taxi, knowing the drivers here don't like to on their meters when you are tourist. Finally decided to take the taxi, asked the driver how much, he quoted $500 baht, after haggling abit, he said $450 baht, ok la, what to do.

The trip to the hotel was jammed after the toll into the city expressway, total spent 1 hour plus and lucky the driver went by the side road else by meter I think we would still be stuck in the jammed.

By the time we reached the hotel, it was around 8pm....

Lucky for member, our room was upgraded to corner location, think bigger abit, and at level 14. It sure looked good and spacious, everything looks quite new, happy !

By the time all settled, around 8+, quickly we went to explore the surroundings. There is a Mac Cafe just at the ground floor of the hotel, funny thing is the food menu for the hotel is MacDonald !

Went to MBK, just a crossed the roads, most shops already closing, hence just took a strolled along a few levels, never went to the top. Overall, quite a messy mall with a lot of stuffs.

Road conditions as seen, is just jams all the way in the city.

Finally settled our first dinner in MacDonald, oh, they served rice set here.......