Sawatdee Khaa

Finally, my first stamp on passport, and it's not even for overseas study, so yay for me!

Day 1 - Silom + Patpong

Arriving in Suvarnabhumi in one piece, extremely awed with the interior, and headed up to the 4th floor right away. Folks in the internet said to get easy cab with no additional charge fee, go to the departure gate and grab a taxi from there. So I did. And it worked. It cost me only 320 Baht to reach the guest house in Silom road. All you need to do is learn the useful Thai phrases. Like "Sawatdee khaa/khab - Hello", "Khorb Khun khaa/khab - Thank you" and numbers. Hehehe.

The Sun Flower was a tremendous lil guest house and it's very clean. I strongly recommend that place for you who wanna stay in cozy yet strategic location. First time I saw that place, it's like lotus blooming out from a dark and mysterious pond. Very impressive.

In the evening, a leisure walk through Silom - Patpong road is a must. There's so many souvenir shops there, but you HAVE TO bargain. Hard. Or else you'll get mugged right in front of your nose, without you knowing it.

Patpong is a night life district in Thailand, famous for it's dancing girls and striptease shows, and it's pretty expensive. Their mar-comm guys advertise the menus right then and there in the road, giving pictures of girls of your choice. Bare. Hahahahaha, first time being shown the menus I was pretty in shock, but after you got use to it, it's getting more hilarious than frightening.

I had dinner in Noodie, and the ice tea with milk shall be my only drink from then on =D

Day 2 - Chatuchak Weekend Market + Suan Lum Night Bazaar

Coz it's Sunday, we're supposed to attend the church at 7.30 am. But alas, we woke at at 7am instead. So, it's a big laugh. Then we're finally ready at 10 o'clock, hurriedly grab a cab with its apparently non-English speaking driver. It was pretty chaos, we had the map to the church, but it's written in Thai. Hahahahaha, we went round and round to find the blasted location, but in the end we had breakfast in McD instead.

McD in Bangkok (at least in Silom road) is much more better than the one in Jakarta. The coke is in large portion already without the up-size option, and it has pork in its menu. Hahaha, I loved it.

After that, I went to Chatuchak weekend market, using BTS to Mo Chit station. Fyi, did you know there's a Thai movie called BTS Love Story? So sweet..

Anyway, we arrived in Chatuchak and spent five freaking hours, walking and buying and browsing and sightseeing with so many tourist from all over the world. You name it, you got it. Italian, Russian, France, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Mexican, Australian, Portuguese, Arabian, Malay, US, Spanish.. OMG!

Shopping in Chatuchak is one of the best shopping experience I ever had so far. Too bad it's only open at weekend. The price was so low, or maybe it's because I came with a friend of mine who got some guts in her blood. She could haggle to the rock bottom price (450 Baht to 20 Baht, for example) and survived without getting killed. Crazy Indon!

I could get my hat for only 70 Baht, and everything is around 50-100 baht. It's so cheap lah..

From Chatuchak, we continue the shopping journey to Suan Lum Night Bazaar cause it's (not) near from our hostel. The front desk in Sun Flower insisted that we should walk cause it's within walking distance. So we did as he told, and we walked, and walked, and it's far. Hahahaha. Or maybe that's just my Indon lazy blood refusing to exercise.

Suan Lum Night Bazaar shopping experience is nowhere near the Chatuchak's. People in Chatuchak is way more friendlier and it's way more crowded (thus the enjoyable views of Jason Mraz wannabe, Super Junior wannabe, Eva Mendez wannabe, etc =P)

Suan Lum offers crazy prices. Crazy expensive, that is. But thanks once again to my outrageous pal, we conquered the place. She could spend AN HOUR to make the price lower from 450 Baht to 200 Baht, and it's pretty normal, cause after that, she spent another hour to reduce something from 290 Baht to 270 Baht. Oh my goat, it's just 20 Baht, 6000 perak!

In the end, we spent four hours, ended up buying magnificent wall ornaments from a handsome Thailand-US guy ;)

Day 3 - Temples + Chao Phraya + Siam Paragon

At first, we planned to go to Grand Palace via taxi boat across the Chao Phraya river. But alas, the place was closed that day for non-Thai people. Why? Cause it's Buddhist day =( Sigh..

No worries, cause after that, the tourist police advise us to go traveling using tuk-tuk for only 40 Baht. We visited Wat Pho, Reclining Buddha and some other tourist centers. It's pretty much a win-win situation. The tuk-tuk driver received some commision and we got to do sightseeing.

Funny thing was, at one point, the tuk-tuk driver strongly told us to "Only looking! No buying! Five minutes only, Ok? No Buying! Only Looking!" but in the end my friend bought lots of Thai silk. Doeeenkkkk!

The same tuk-tuk driver also introduced us to The Bangrak restaurant in Bangrak district. The place is so unique, with many dolls and artifacts, but with non-English waiters/waitresses. =_= The food was magnificent, but so does the price. We spent 1800 Baht in that restaurant, for four persons. The tom yam is so damn good. though, unlike the one I tasted in Jakarta. And besides, since we did so many shopping and traveling, I didn't eat that frequent, so there goes my food budget in one serving. Hahahaha.

Ah, off we go to have some Thai massage. After that, we browsed the MBK - Siam Paragon mall, but nothing beats the Chatuchak.

Day 4 - Phratunam Fashion mall + Siam Niramit

First of all, our track record is getting worse. This time, I woke up at 11 am when I was s'posed to join the National Independence ceremony in KBRI. Sigh, but since we're late already, we decided to shop =S Girls..

We went to Phratunam Fashion Mall in Ratchatewi area where everything is sold in wholesale price. I immediately tawt my girlfriends would LOVE to shop here cause the price is so cheap and the clothes are made in Korea anyway. No need to go direct to the country =P

The mall is located near KBRI so I took pictures at the front gate since I have no guts to step inside =D The embassy was a bit different from what I've imagined it would be. It got double layer protection (=_=)

Anyhoo, upon entering the Phratunam Fashion mall (it's more like ITC in Jakarta, actually, only with cuter and cheaper price products), I regretted bringing so many clothes. Mark my word, dear friend. DO NOT bring too many clothes to Thailand, three tank-tops, one outer wear and one short pants were enough. The rest you could buy.

At one shop, I was so in love with a hat (yes, me and my obsession with hats) and JRENG JRENG, the seller was Korean. So, 'ahjussi', 'hangul saram', and 'kansamhamnida' were coming out from my mouth. That was pretty chaotic, I ended up not buying it though, and I regreeeeetted it!!!

“Girls, skipped the Siam Paragon and Suan Lum Night Bazaar and go straight to Chatuchak weekend market and Phratunam Fashion Mall for maximum shopping time”

We spent 5-6 hours in that fashion mall, we nearly missed the Siam Niramit show at 8 pm. Gyaaah!

Speaking of Siam Niramit, I've never been to that kind of cultural/dance show for the whole 26 years of my life. That show costs for like 1500 Baht but it's so much worth it. Damn it's gorgeous, the lighting, the tremendous stage, the special effect, the music, the dancers, have I mention the stage? I loved it! I rate it 9 out of 10. There's also shuttle car picking us up to/from Thailand Cultural Center MRT station so worry no more on how to get to that place.

Ah, what a night. After that, we dined in Burger King (disappointing place, by the way, they should learn from BK in Jakarta) only to see guy kissing another guy in the mouth. And they're not even good looking so no fun seeing it =|

The next day would be the day I went to Phuket, so I'll write that one later. All in all, Bangkok is a great city for traveling. I love going there. And hopefully I could visit it later in future year.