BangKoK Diary
-
On our first day we touched down bangkok around afternoon, after clearing thru customs we proceeded to the departure hall. Departure hall? nope, no mistake, we went there and took a cab to our hotel why? The airport taxi stand already had a long queue of waiting taxi's waiting to "makan" the new arrivals these taxi's run without meter fares, hotel buses would only ferry passengers whose hotels are located within places like sukamvit, silom or most 3 star above hotels, ours was not listed on the main route and the "legal" airport taxi's will blatantly charge 300 bhat as a standard fare to any destination.
Now Taxi's ferrying departing travellers would normally leave empty handed after coming in to airport departure hall, there was a signboard with a 2000 bhat fine that warned drivers against picking up passengers at departing halls but regardless we still saw many taxi's parked there and waiting, so we took a chance. The cab we took to our hotel at departature hall cost us 179 bhat on the meter, we willinglly gave him 200 bhat and allow him to keep the change as a tip and reward for his bravery.
Once we checked in we changed to old clothes and sandals and when we felt we looked more like locals then tourists, we went exploring, after going to a few shopping centers to look for $$$ changer(rate b24-S$1) since our flight was budget airline they didn't serve food and we haven't had lunch so we bypassed all the KFC, macdonalds and pizza and went for the rear shopping enterance door, closeby there we were rewarded with wantan mee that cost a little more 20 bhat abt singapore 90cts and ice coffee which tasted like starbucks ice mochha, then there was all the satay stick snacks like fried meat
balls, bbq garlic pork sausages on a stick all costing 10 bhat each and close by we saw a lot of push cart shops, a lot of sibeh ChioBu and chio xiao meimei will buy clothes, colorful hairpins, stockings etc from these places and all these
located just ourside or nearby a major shopping center.
Anyway by the time we done was close to 8pm(thailand 1hr behind singapore), we had came empty handed, no soap or toothbrushes or toothpaste, towel, just bare essentials of a few underwear and an extra set of clothes and a huge empty bag, we went to carrefour closeby to get our toiletries damn bladdy cheap. 1 Gillette shaver 35 bhat singapore at my bladdy neighbourhood store I think I will pay 4 times that.
Feeling a bit tired we returned to our hotel, on the way we saw a lot of foot massage, these we tried, I find that some are good but many are bs. If you want to try, go for those that have a lot of asian tourists NOT ang moh and have old lady massuer inside, those are worth the $$$.
day 2 coming still typing in progress
-
Day 2
Woke up ard 7am, funny somehow cannot sleep leh, feeling hungry so after changed and went downstairs for complimentry breakfast.
I must say that the breakfast is mean and nasty enuf to feed to our singapore troops. Anyway this morning till afternoon mostly alone.
My pals went for medical checkup at bumrungrad hospital we arranged that I meet them there later on, this hospital located at sukumvit soi 3/1 is a new hospital look alot like gleneagles.
They paid abt S$300+ for cholestrol test, blood test, urine test, stool test, ultrasound test, xray and spermcount test. I think at gleneagles for S$300 dunno have sperm test or not Hahahahah.
Anyway I tried out their new spanking MRT train which looks a lot like ours, very neat and orderly and all the trains, sigh... sooooo many chio bu, singapore gers ..tsk .. sigh..
Seems like ard 8:30am the trains will be packed with people going to work or school, but I found that in BKK everything only starts to turn at around 11am,
around 11am the shops will open, the traffic gets heavier. To pass time I took the train too all the stations then transferred to BTS skytrain to all stations. I even went to chatuchak but they closed on weekdays.
Seems like much had changed the last time I visited abt over a year ago. Now almost everywhere except Khao San and Yaowarat Road(chinatown) is connected to either skytrain or MRT. I walk aimlessly that day trying to pass the time
around 11am I decided to go to the hospital, along sukamvit there are a lot of push carts just starting to open, uglier streetwalkers(hookers) but english speaking one also just starting to stand near busstops waiting for lonely angmoh. walking along the soi(street) apart from the fake branded clothes and porn vcd, the most interesting part is looking at what all these shops sell. I saw alot of knives, switch blades, knuckle dusters, katanas,
all-in-one toolsets knives, retractable police steel batons even electric stun guns are for sale.
Anyway linked up with my friends in the afternoon, we decided to have snack instead of having lunch and since we already in sukamvit explore everything there. Wah a lot of gers in thailand very very beautiful, not talking abt hookers but normal commoners, a lot of high school students are so pretty and they will put fann wong and the other tcs actresses to shame. Wah our jaws really drop man. In thailand you want to look at pretty gers, you only have to go to the nearest MRT entrance and wait near the escalator, every 1-2 minutes you will see a few.
After several hours and 3 very nice new berms costing 250 bhat each, f.ucking cheap I saw an exact same design a few months ago at holland.v factory outlet cost $30 bucks for one f.uckedtup man,
we went back to our hotel to deposit our shopping and on to the backlanes for dinner. Nothing much happened dat nite
Day 3 coming. -
wah, pei fu anyone who read all these
-
those ppl wt to go budget tour in dec will find my post useful mah ...
-
yup u must pei fu me..i read it...and bo liao...
-
one lump of information how to be helpful?Originally posted by KumSioJui:those ppl wt to go budget tour in dec will find my post useful mah ...
do main points, show pictures, more effective mah
eg. recommended shopping centres: X, Y, Z
recommended airlines and price: X, Y, Z at $X $Y $Z
recommended hotels: X, Y, Z
places to visit: A, B, C, D, E, F, G....
like that mah -
quite interesting... waiting for more
-
Sorry no pics, our style of travelling is very different, when we go overseas we dun like to look like tourists that means no colorful clothes, no fancy shoes, haversack bags and definately no cameras.
On the other hand if your aim in BKK is to get laid by the engrish speaking but diseased laden hookers then by all means try your best to look as touristy or as farang as possible and you will attract all the streetwalkers, and also gem con artists, taxi drivers who want to befriend you and take you to massage parlors, f.uckshops and places to buy lousy fake gems.
The info here is for people who want to know more abt the bangkok other than the "chatuchak" bangkok that they have grown tired of. If you want p.ussy info goto sammyboy website, you not going to find any here.
anyway day 3 We skipped lousy hotel bf and went local, after that had to go back to hospital to get results I decided to try the dental, on the spot they did for me cleaning, scaling and filling 1 cavity for S$60, I think in singapore have to make advance appointment and pay over 100 bucks.
After dental went to phantip plaza, geek town near pratunam, a bit like simlim sq and simlim tower in 1 building. Here you can find the older model PDA, phones etc ... but beware the firmware these devices run on are mostly in thai and the price is more expensive than in singapore, but the good thing abt
phantip plaza is the pirated software, here you can find apart from microsoft, you can get comprehensive testking past exam training CD for Cisco CCNA, microsoft, comptia, oracle for something like S$15.
After phantip went nearby for more wantan mee, then on to pratunam market, This place is a huge clothes whosale market. The pasir malam clothes in singapore all mostly come from pratunam, a lot of meimei clothes, guys clothes, t-shirts also have.
Dinner we snacked locally, then on to suan loong night market, there is a new MRT train now called lumpini and is next to the night market. At the night market you can buy all sorts of funny funny things and souvenirs like hand crafted shoes, cheong goods, toilet seats, plastic encased aquarium fish keychains, door magnets, I bought a couple of very nice but very fake dupont cigarette lighters for S$17 each. Real dupont lighters cost $700 and above, the fake ones at lucky plaza will come close to $50-70, all in I think it was a good bargain. I also bought a torch light runs on a magnet strange contraption. We didn't know Octoberfest come to town, within the night market is this huge entertainment area with live band, thai singers and hell of a lot of very young very chio beer promoter all pulling customers here and there to buy all sorts of german lager or malt beers, a tall glass(0.33 ltr) of paulana beer cost 120 bhat == $5.00, we drank until we nearly drunk
then ran after the last train to get back to our hotel.
Day 4 coming. -
Day 4, after a good local breakfast bowl of beef noodle at the roadside,
we flagged down a cab and went to kahosan. Never take cabs that are parked by the roadside waiting for customers these don't want to run on the meter and will charge 200-300 bhat. Before entering a cab ask if they will run on meter, no? just walk away and flag the next one. Depending on where you are going, the express way normally lesser traffic will cost a toll of 40 bhat. This is outside the meter fare, normally the metered taxi driver will ask you if you want to go by express way, if yes it implies you will have to pay for the toll.
Khaosan is a true backpacker's town. Full of cheap guesthouses, shops stocked with all sorts of goods like dyed clothes, bags, old magazines, books, tattoo shops, cafes, some massage palors etc ... there are also a lot of some road side stalls selling coffee both ice and hot normally cost 10-20bhat. The more interesting thing abt khaosan is here in 5 minutes you can instantly get a driver's license with your photo on it or NUS press card, fake plastic type identity cards for 20 different countries incl SG , certified scuba diver instructor license, both diploma or university degrees also up for sale and they are quite blatant and open abt it. I saw one guy selling it then a few meters further down a policeman on the beat looking everywhere else but towards the guy selling the fake ids.
We spent abt 4hrs in khaosan then took a cab to yaowarat road aka chinatown. Chinatown is really huge place. We went to a sharkfin shop and each person ate 1 claypot of sharkfin and crabmeat, this is not the watered down type you eat at wedding dinners but the good stuff. The shop owner conversed with us in mandarin and we pumped him for info. He gave us directions to head for the wholesale market, the best place to buy pork floss or pork sticks(bak tiao). The wholesale market is really a whosale market, a lot of shops selling shoes, sandals, clothes, bags, costume jewellery, a lot of these shops do retail also for the local tourist crowd. I bought a nice pair of valcro strapped type teva sandals for S$30, really genuine one ... I think
Dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by the sharkfin shop owner, the waiter took our order in teochew and we had the best whole roasted pig ever, the skin after roasting and sliced tasted like biscuit and did not even have the slightest fat on it is a testament of the cooks high skill.
The pig cost us 900 bhat, we gave 1000 bhat and told them to keep the change as tips. After makan we headed back out to patphong night bazaar.
The minute you enter the bazaar touts will try to grab you and tail you pestering you to enter their establishment for 100 bhat drink and free show. Don't ever enter. There is no free show, the 100 bhat beer you order will become 500 bhat and the girls on the stage dance a bit or talk to you for a minute and ask you for tips, then another girl will come dance a bit, talk a bit and ask for tips again the whole time you are there. And also here in patpong wary of pickpockets. the good thing abt patpong is here they sell some really really good contraband t-shirts really cheap. My friends bought a few armani polo's, I bought a few Calvin and hobbes, south park t-shirts after tedious bargaining to S$6 a piece. Good material and not the type that will wash off.
After patpong, feeling famished, we walked around and stumbled across a roadside stall selling western food. Not my idea of going local but seeing so many thai's eating there and feeling hungry we decided to try. Their speciality is a pair of huge spiced homemade pork sausages per serving. The sausages I'm not kidding the size of a young baby male horse's dick. We had 4 plate servings of these and 2 bottles of singha beers it came to less than S$13.
day 5 coming later ah .. now dinner time -
like thwe idea of going local.
-
Last day in BKK, we decided to do last minute shopping, skipping BF both hotel and local, we went to yaowarat again. There we had a small Yum Cha breakfast, if you ever there try the wantan mee, siew mai and most important try the char siew pau.
The moment your fingers wrap ard the pau the skin will stick to it, 4 char siew pau cost 50 bhat abt S$2. We din take the siew mai as we planned an extravagant lunch back at the same restaurant again, we also had bird nest the good stuff type. Then we went back into the market again, I bought a few very nice dog collars for less than S$2, we turned a corner and found ourselves in a street full of dry foods, here I bought locally made raisins half kilo for 70bhat abt S$2+, half kilo roasted cashew nuts 160bhat, then further on bought a handheld sewing machine for an aunt 100 bhat, a computer bag for notebok set me 500bhat after bargaining from 1500bhat.
We lost track of time, on to restaurant, the owner was very surprised we returned so soon, it was already lunch time and the dining room was nearly packed we asked him to recommend and we ordered 1 kailan dish, steamed soonhock, fish maw dish. When we abt to finish our meal a waiter gave us a dish of freshly baked tapioca coated with rock sugar compliments of the house. When we finished that they gave us a tray of tea compliments of the house again.
I'm not a tea expert but I think the tea must be really very good, the teacups used were very small and the lids were so thin like paper, this is the first time I ever drank tea from such cups.
I think the owner seeing us "hao seah kia" return so soon was very pleased, we also very impressed, this is first time we ever meet a fellow chinese but total stranger but afford us this kind of hospitality very touched. Truly in the four corners all chinese are brothers, wah feel very shiok. The bill came to 890 bhat, again we gave 1000 bhat and told to keep the change.
Anyway we almost out of time, hotel late checkout is 2pm ard 1:45pm we still stuck in traffic, we got back just in nick of time, checked out, stowed our luggage in the hotel luggage compartment and went shopping again. Some went to cut/wash hair at nearby salon or last minute foot massage, I went to nearby robinson dept store. There I bought abt 6 good long sleeve office shirts(good material) for abt S$13 each, and a pair of leather shoes for
the office set me back S$40, I think in singapore at robinsons the same material shirts will cost at least $40 each and the leather shoes at least 80bucks and above.
At 4pm time to leave before 5pm when the traffic at expressway peaks. We reached airport ard 5pm, had we left at 5pm I think we will be stuck all the way till 7pm or longer in the notorious traffic jam. 7:45pm we checked in spent my last few bhats on chocolate, oh yes and topped up my cigarette box (holds exactly 28 sticks)
thats it.
All in I spent abt 700 bucks alone on our snacking binge, drinking, transport dentals and shopping, hotel and airfare cost me another 300 bucks, 5 days in BKK I can say is money well spent -
happy holidays..
-
no prada for me?
-
GPGT~!!
-
Prada .. er .. luggage no more space oready .. paiseh nxt yr okie