Thursday, December 14, 2006

Hooray!! Hooray!! It's a Holi-Holiday!!!


I have been anticipating this trip for months. I saw this promotion on AirAsia, tickets to Bangkok for only RM9.99. What a bargain,i jumped on this opportunity for a budget trip :) So, i invited my cousin to come along with me for this trip and after 3 months of planning. We were finally on the flight to Bangkok!

My plan was upon landing, we'll head straight to Pattaya. We arrived about 8pm local time, reached Pattaya at 10.30pm. The taxi driver could not locate the Hotel that we booked online. The first night, we did not do much, just walking around looking for a good place to have dinner. We manage to find a small stall selling 'Wantan Mee' the Thai style :P yummy! We ended up back in our Hotel room, drinking vodka that we bought before the depature to Bangkok.

There's nothing much to see in Pattaya, unless you are on outdoor kind of person. We manage to get a cab back to Bangkok City. Luck was not on our side, the cab that took us there broke down and we had to wait for another transportation to arrive. It took us more than 4 hours to reach our destination.

Our first day there was nothing special, we just took a walk around the city, visited their famous shopping center which is the MBK a.k.a. Mah Boon Krong. It is sort of our very own Sungei Wang, lots of boutiques selling fake and cheap handbags and also cheap clothing. We took a slow walk to another Shopping Mall which is also known as the Siam Peragon, it is something like our KLCC. All branded goods, and it’s definitely more expensive compared to Malaysia, so there is no point for shopping there. The area is sort of like our Bukit Bintang, all shopping malls are just across the road conjoint to each other.

We had been in a few tours; the most memorable one is the Ayutthaya tour, better known as the River Sun Cruise Tour. It starts very early in the morning, my tour guide arrives at my hotel at 6.15 am, me and my cousin had a very early breakfast. We have to make a few stops, to fetch other people before we are transferred to a tour bus. Man, we have to wait for this guy from India to get ready, we waited till 7.15 and he is not even ready. When finally he got on the van, he yelled for the tour guide to stop..He forgot his Camera!!! My God!! When we reach to the bus station, we were the last to arrive, everyone is waiting for us. Because of him, our journey was delayed and behind schedule. Talk about luck. We didn’t have any luck that day, we have to skip a few stops to make it in time for the Cruise back to Bangkok. No ship is going to wait for us!

Overall, we had a blast, visiting the Ancient City, bringing us back in time. It’s really an amazing sight, Magnificent Bang-Pa In Palace, Wat Mahathat, The ruins of the Temple (not sure of the Temple’s name) where we saw the Buddha face on the root of a Bodhi Tree. We suppose to make another stop, thanks to the guy from India, we have to cancel that and went straight to the quay where we board on the ship. We had lunch on board while enjoying scenery and sights along the mighty Chao Pharya River.

Another place that we visited was the Floating Market called “Damnoen Saduak”. It is one of the must go places when you are in Bangkok. We get to ride on the ‘Sampan’ to reach to the destination, looks sort of like our Pulau Ketam, except that it is more colourful, more people J more food and souvenirs. We book this tour when we arrive at the airport, it’s affordable as they were having a promotion. We paid RM 80 per person, with a private tour guide and driver. We detour to a few other places, stopped at a teak wood factory and also coconut factory, definitely to their export centers, where they sell, jewelry and clothes at a very low price.

During the weekend, a place that every tourist will visit is the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It’s huge, about 65 acres, it takes you more than a week to complete. You can from anything to everything at the Chatuchak, a very good place to bargain. I and my Cousin took the BTS there, it’s really convenient. I don’t think we even finish ¼ of the area, we walked around and got lost and we find ourselves going around in circles; still it is fun, we got most of our souvenirs from there. At about 2pm, we were so worn out, when we reach to our hotel, both of us went flat. It’s a day well spent.

After 2 trip with the same tour guide, we became friends, her name is Nuttaya. She offer to take us around Bangkok at night, she also happen to live near my Hotel. We went for Dinner, took us to her favourite spa for a good Traditional Thai Massage. She even took us to see the ‘Cylpso Show’ aka LadyBoy Show, definitely not as grand as Tiffany Show in Pattaya. She even took us to the “Thai Girl Show” hehe!!

We even made some friends when we were on the cruise, we suppose to meet up at Patpong Market, just to hang out, unfortunately, we were in the middle of a terrible traffic jam and it was raining heavily. We’ll catch up some other time Maria! We did manage to meet up with one of my friend from Bangkok, Leaf, thank you for your hospitality, and for that lunch J

On our last day in Bangkok, we went visiting the last few places, which is the famous Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho where lies the Gold Reclining Buddha. We did some last minute shopping, and then back to the hotel to pack up. Our flight was schedule at very odd hours. What do you expect right? Paying only RM 9.99 for a one way ticket. It’s quite a bargain, considering only paying less than 10% of normal flight charges. To sum up, I spent a total of 9days and 8 nights in Thailand, including of my all expenses (accommodation, food, transport, tours, souvenirs and air ticket) I spend less than RM 1500. What more can I say, it’s a steal!! I just can’t wait for my next holiday!


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