Summer's here yet again...

updates

back from my trip on tues to bkk...here's some highlights:
sat- departed from sg to new bkk's Suvarnabhumi Airport. flight was delayed and alighting there became horribly late. reached hotel near evening time when it's almost time for dinner... wooh. plus service at the new airport was tardy and slow..the immigration officers at the counters were taking their time to check us in and there's this little web cam look-alike thing that u've to look at while u stand in front of the check-in desk, used to detect ur face.. probably cus you might be some kinda international wanted criminals. dinner was sumptuous thai food opposite our hotel.. their green curry there is certainly different from those you would taste in sg's thai restaurants. more flavourful especially to the sour side. seriously their food widens the extremes of ur tastebuds. it's either very sweet, sour or salty. After that, we went to Suan Lum Night Bazaar which our guide recommended.. stuff there is definitely much ex than chatuchak so u gotta bargain ur way through. but it's more spacious i would say compared to chatuchak. we found a really great designer shop whr we got bags n shirts. the designer says he's got lotsa singaporeans and hk shoppers coming to visit his store. he takes part in annual designer's festival all over the world and he's gg new york end of this yr to particate in some fash bash. his website is : http://www.peachpost.com/

we stayed at novotel in siam sq. i would say it's an ideal location especially for youngsters like us. lotsa shops around the area of our hotel but the thing is prices are slightly higher and no bargaining at most shops.has the atmosphere of far east cum bugis street. the area i would say is less rowdy, newer and cleaner then other parts of bkk. the no. 1 uni Chualalongkong University is within walking distance from our hotel. Lots of students in the afternoon and night. malls surrounding our locality are those more classic ones like Siam Paragon, Siam Centre, Siam Discovery Centre, hence, prices are like those u would expect when u walk into any malls in orchard.walking further down is the famous MBK where stuff are cheaper.We got the most things there! also, there are malls like central world and gaysorn plaza which we didn't manage to visit(which i kinda regret..) but heard that stuff are less costly than siam centre prollie ard the MBK range. another interesting thing i noted is that near siam square area there are quite a number of clinics that deals with beauty consultation, lasik etc. it's like those normal GP clinics you'd find in sg and there are always almost filled with patients waiting day and night when we pass by them while shopping. seems that thai ppl are an image-conscious bunch, catching up with the modern society.

sun-since it was free n easy tour, we chose to join the guide to bring us to 2 temples(4-faced buddha + standing buddha) and a gems factory (which is boring for us of course since no one in my family likes this kinda gems stuff). after that it's time for weekend mkt Chatuchak! but it was utterly disappointing. cus the weather there was hot and sultry ard 35 deg. worse than sg's temperature!!:( we walked less than 4 hrs and left. part of the reason was the nature of the place, which is made of tents..it's suffocating to walk thru the entire stretch of shops considering the weather. The fact that Chatuchak is divided into so many sections didn't help at all. The place we stayed longest was in the JJ mall (JJ=chatuchak thai's abbr. for it).haha. cus air-con is still the best in such an unkind weather! when we were abt to cab back to the hotel, it started to rain.. in a way telling us we shld head back and we planned to. rested in hotel and came out in the late evening to have steamboat at MK restaurant in MBK. i always like to go there when in thailand cus it's really cheap for the whole family and they have real gd dishes in small portions that make u feel just right! hehe. there was some miscommunication in the rest. though cus the waiters can speak eng but dun really understand us for some reason. we just point everywhr in the menu, which had eng. translation of the food (part of why i like MK)..they see foreigners they are very observant n efficient..will attend to us almost immediately cus 2 waiters stood like v close to our table throughout our meal..better service than in sg.ooops. shopped at MBK that night.

mon-went to grand palace on our own after bfast at hotel. we got cunned by the cabby. he says he wants to fetch us to some attractions, he took us to 2 gems factory, 1 which we alr visited the day before. cus he told us there was this govt. scheme for taxi drivers to be able to claim petrol kiosks coupons to get 5 litres of petrol if they brought us to an attraction, my dad says it's true but it's to his advantage not ours at all. we wasted abt 1 hr that morning because of him. but we got over it. Grand Palace is a big place man! i like the decors and all. took lotsa pics at there esp with the soldiers who were stood so stiffly guarding the different museums and halls..hahax. the funny part is the place is super-conservative! all of us except my parents wore half pants that day and the moment we stepped in, we were told by guards to get thai silk skirts rent-free inside the main area. the skirt is so long that it slips off my waists every now and then even when i tied it tight enough and i was so scared to trip over myself everytime.there were a lot of caucasians and asians there (esp. chinese nationals). admission is only free for thais only. think we paid ard 250 baht per head.it took us abt half a day to finish walking. after that we went to have a late lunch at chinatown. had birds' nest and sharks' fin soup at the most recommended place by tourists who visit chinatown(yaowarat road they call) nam xing restaurant. found it so so only. birds' nest was too sweet. we walked ard chinatown despite the downpour which last abt an hour. there are lots of wholesale shops in almost all the streets where you can get really gd bargains ONLY when you buy in bulk. there have various accessories at real cheap prices. we got some random items like hair accessories, socks even. i believe the malls got their accessories like bags and all from there especially MBK cus it looks similar from what we saw. Oh and yes, we love the fruits in chinatown very juicy and sweet no matter what you buy, we got a few fruits like longans, dragonfruits back to our hotel to munch for supper. at night ate at hk cafe near siam square near our lodging area. food not bad still very flavourful.

tues- head back to sg. this time round i felt the seats in this cathay pacific was better and cleaner than the departure plane and the seats were very much filled up.

final note: my guide is curently doing her masters in a no. 3 university in bkk. think her english is average, there are certain terms that she needs to learn from us. hmm..m also their uni fees is around S$1000 per sem and only if you study during the wkends then, u'll pay ard S$5000-6000 per sem, which she says is insane and very few ppl can afford there only the wealthy classes. so most ppl go schooling mon-fri yah. also, they start late and end late mostly from ard 8to9am till 4pm.
overall rating for this trip: 6.5/10 partly the weather made this trip tiresome, some days rainy or if not extreme sunny. we didn't get to see protests in the streets like those pro-Thaksin rally but the cabbies showed us where the open area where the supporters of thaksin will stage the rally abt 6pm, which is beside the Grand Palace area. One thing we miss other than going to certain malls is the Pratunam mkt where my guide says there're many wholesale gds in the day. too rush for us in this trip. Also, it's good to know a bit of thai cus there may be times of miscommunication and it comes in handy if u know a few terms, but in this case, i rely on my dad who knows a bit of basic thai.

Sunday, June 24, 2007