On travel
The Second day in Bangkok is much much less stressful than that of the first. I forgot to write down the traffic concerns we had on Day 1 – Basically there is some festival (is it the Magha Puja ?) and several taxis declined to take us because we are situated near the potential jam spots. So on the second day we took a slower tempo and decided to visit other (shopping) places.
Morning is spent eating at the cafeteria that is operated by 507, it is a nice place, food isn’t that bad, and we get to sit in the cool watching traffic heat up outside the window.
A little corner of Bangkok
Nice place, granted.
Anyway, we took off and moved towards the victory memorial station, passed by some roadside stores and stopped for some local snacks.
Roadside stall along Victory Memorial. Cheap and tasty!
Look at the smile on Jo's face~ She clearly loves it a lot.
We decided to head towards the another station and there are some malls to visit over there, two of which are MBK, a all-in-one shopping mall of sorts, and Siam Discovery, where the Loft is.
Where the trendy things are. Guess who's the person walking in?
One look and the Loft is big. When we went only one out of three floors is open, but that floor is enough to occupy us for some time. There are various things there that are not available (to the best of my knowledge) in Singapore, but some are familiar and recognised to be in retail at some of similar stores here.
Many many cute things to bring back.
After that we went for a walk and looked at the surrounding buildings that are connected by the extensive overhead bridge, which connects several malls together. That is a very good thing, because I certainly do not want to run across the road in Bangkok’s Traffic conditions.
One of the better days of Bangkok traffic
It turns out that Bangkok drivers are pretty good at driving, because of the four days that I have been there, I did not see any traffic accident, injuries or any of the sort, though there is a commotion on Day 3 when our taxi driver got into a dispute with a disgruntled tuk tuk.
So we went into the MBK nearby and found ourselves in a more familiar environment – shopping malls! With Japanese and Western foods and brands. And a lot of touristy looking people.
Another shopping mall, for more trendy folks. Opposite the road are many designer boutiques.
In the night-time the girls went back to the Platinum Shopping Mall to visit the stores they missed on their first visit. Wow, they can really walk..
One of the sculptures we saw en route to the malls. She must be tired from all the shopping/walking.
One of the little highlights we saw in the malls include this little store with the name.. Google!
Female Apparel only though. Nice flowery logo.
Day 2 ends with us tired and worn out. The girls were thinking about clubbing, but the bags of clothes weighted against their decisions and we went to have our haircut instead. Some of the girls went for a haircut and treatment. I opted for treatment instead, but mistakenly got my hair done at an additional 80 Baht. So my hair is nicely done up for the walk back to the hotel before it is washed off. A pity too, because the hairdo is pretty good. I got ridiculed all the way back to the hotel.
Day 3 is reserved for tomorrow. Plenty of taxi things happened on Day 3.
Stay tuned,
Jack
Comment on this | By Jack in travel
On the third of February (2 weeks back) Jolyn and I went to Bangkok to have a short getaway. The price seemed reasonable, and since I have never been to Bangkok before, I figured why not. We took a total of SGD900 with us. Our intention is not to spend money on shopping but to simply see the place, take in the scenery etc.
The flight there is simple enough – check into Singapore Changi Terminal 1 and wait for lift-off, then wait for three hours before we touched down in Bangkok’s International Airport.
Jo and me high in the sky, or waiting to fly
A short while after touchdown in Bangkok’s Airport, we went to our hotel in one of Bangkok’s taxis – a pink one, Hello kitty edition cab with a cheerful driver and good driving skills. Without further ado he weaved us onto the express way and through some toll booths and an hour later into a side road leading to our hotel, which is near the Victory Memorial.
hotel decor is pretty nice, and air-conditioned too
Being a fairly large group we split into 2 taxis, and our group reached the hotel first. We waited for the interpreter to arrive before checking into our rooms. A word of advice to the would-be visitor – Bangkok people.. shall we say.. are pretty good with words, so much so that you have to second check what they say to prevent additional expenditures.
Anyway, after checking in and dropping our luggages, off we went to see the sights and surroundings of the place we will be frequenting for the next 3 days. Victory memorial is basically a roundabout, full of cars and tuktuks, surrounding an impressive monument to the victory of WW2. You can find out more about it via Google, but the monument itself is pretty impressive.
Victory Memorial. Click on image to have a closer look.
Jo looking good with a Victory Memorial as background
And we went onto the Bangkok Train System (BTS) from Victory Memorial Station to Chit Lom Station, where some of the shopping districts are. The shopping centres there are not unexpectedly similar to those that we find back in Singapore, though they have space to expand and hence the stores are huge.
We ate at a thai restaurant, not bad, but I was looking towards some “local fare for locals” instead of “good food for tourists”. After a quick meal we went to pay our respects to the Four Faced Buddha nearby (much smaller than what I thought it to be, seeing some of the various other religious attractions that Thailand has to offer).
Top View of the Four Faced Buddha from the overhead bridge
Here's a street view of the attraction. Flower offerings are 50 Baht a set.
And then we are off to the heart of the little trip - Platinum Fashion Mall – where there are seven or eight floors of shopping heaven. And the girls go…
The shopping heaven's gates, or Platinum Fashion Mall to the locals
I have never seen so many shops on so many floors! I will leave the interior of the place to the reader’s imagination. Just imagine many many shops.. The girls went back with multiple bags of clothes that night. Indeed, the best money to earn is girl money!
At night we went to Suan Lum Night Bazaar to have a little Thai massage. Most of the photos are taken by the other girls, so no more photos are presented here. Just bring Bahts to spend.
Typical Tourist Attraction - Be prepared to haggle for the return trip to your hotel
Stay tuned for the subsequent days.. gonna call it a night =)
For now,
Jack
Comment on this | By Jack in travel
So today I woke up nice and early for work, freshened by the long sleep during the weekends. I got out of my house at a good 20 minutes headstart.
I reached office at around the same time. I got held back in traffic jams, train delays and the bus was packed to the brim, so delayed me considerably.
So hey, maybe I shouldn’t get up early next time, seeing that the results are around the same.
Comment on this | By Jack in travel
