Didn’t really have the mood to write for the past few days. And that kept my write out on the Bangkok trip stalled for quite some time. Well, and here am I again to continue on it while allowing myself to get distracted by Special Forbes 20 Young & Rich. Gosh, these people, or rather kids, are really rich. Phew. Alright alright, Bangkok, come to me.
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Day 3 in Bangkok.
Day 3, as planned, was our HARDCORE shopping day! Early in the morning, I guess the guys got lucky. We had our turn for the breakfast buffet today but no one was there to check on our room keys when we enter the café. So, after a nice meal, we woke the girls up to shoo them down for breakfast. Hahas. And when we’re all done, we got all our thai bahts ready and off we went to the famous fashion mall just beside us.
We started from Basement 1. We gave ourselves 1 hour of shopping at this level before we meet again at our meeting point –the escalators. Believe it or not. 1 hour is way not enough for us as we were slowly cruising around. I guess at that point of time, we hadn’t picked up the speed yet. Still warming up. Haha =D The place is just HUGE! As for the guys, 1 hour wasn’t enough for us to go through all the guy shops. Therefore, the girls. Hahaha When we met up after 1 hour, they were complaining how crazy it was. Shops after shops. Having almost all the girl stuffs they wanted to look at but didn’t have the time. Hahas. But still, vina and fritzie got quite some stuffs out of it. Guys? Nothing so far, as we still think there’s more to explore further up.
Level 1. Another 1 hour. Level 2. This time we reduced it to 50 mins. Haha. Why? Cuz the mall have SEVEN stories. So we just need to manage our time.
Okay, and so we covered 3 levels. B1, 1 and 2. And here, we took an intermission for lunch =) hahs Headed for the food court at the top floor. Same thing as day 1. We’d to purchase these food coupons. But this one is cooler. We got a card instead. A prepaid card. So we just basically scan the card to purchase food. And when the credits in the card is all used up, the stall holder will keep it. We got smart. We did some budgeting and tried to use up the stored value in the card, leaving 1 or 2 baht behind so that we can keep it as a souvenir =) hahas The thai milk tea here was SO NICE and super cheap! I got myself 2 cups. Tea over-dose for the day. Hahahs But never mind, I need it for the shopping later.
This time, our strategy was from up to down. Level 6. SO MANY BAGS! The girls really had a hard time walking away from them. Me? Nah, not into thai bags. I had already invested into my beloved River Island bag. Love it and I’m staying loyal to it. =) 30 minutes for Level 5, 30 minutes for Level 4. And our legs are reaching their limits. Breeeakkking. Two more levels to go. The mall is just like never ending. Really. And we’re almost broke. Especially the girls. The bags they carry are really big and heavy. Hence, to save their money and save our legs, we set 45 minutes for both level 2 & 3. Hahas. 1 hour to 50 minutes to 45 minutes to 30 minutes and then this. What a drop in our stamina!!! Hahaha
We finished the mall at around 6pm. P-H-E-W!! Sersiouly. We were almost dead as we just sat at this coffee café discussing where to go next. For half an hour. Well, basically it was to allow our legs to recharge. Wanted to head back to hotel for a rest. But our ego for going on around town is still in us. Oh well, in the end, the guys and the girls made a deal. We being nice gentlemen decided to carry their big heavy shopping bags as we explore town further.
We walked the streets and settled down at KFC for dinner not long after. KFC in Bangkok? What a great choice right?! -_-" But well, we were too hungry then. We just convinced ourselves that thai’s KFC is rather different from singapore’s and malaysia’s. They really are.
(to be continued... a whole big chunk to write on our most fun night in Bangkok. Our last night, duh!)
♥ No greater love than this.2 x 11:16 PM
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Watched WANTED yesterday with runjin and siewpeng!! =)))) Finally I get to watch it. And the best thing is at just SIX RINGGIT!!! Which is only 2.5 singapore bucks for a good cinema =DD 5 singapore bucks can only get a seat at the ultra run-down princess in Singapore, Bedok. That explains why I’m always a movie maniac back in Malaysia. Hahas Hmm… back at Singapore, I still am. Opps =p
WANTED was really greeeeeeeeeeat! The car pursuits. The way they handle guns, shooting. Man!! Coolness. LURVE it.
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Okay. The highlight of day two of the bangkok trip. The market was really big, HUGE… HUMONGOUS!! They just sell whatever stuffs available. Crowd? Man, it was really packed. This is where the four of us lost contact for a while as we were looking for our respective stuffs. Cuz there is just too much stuff to look at. And a while later, I bumped onto vina and steven, which I found out they just met only a moment earlier. Well, we expect fritzie to pop up next. But still fritzie is still nowhere to be found after half an hour. Among the four of us, fritzie is lost and she’s the ONLY ONE with a useless mobile phone without roaming. The reason she claimed for carrying it around? To use it as a calculator. DOTS. -_-" Okay, so we were just unable to contact her. We got worried. But the only way was to wait for her call. "hmm… maybe fritzie is having the time of her life." Vina said. Hey, that can be quite true, actually, we thought. Hahas. So oh well, after waiting for half an hour, we decided that maybe fritzie prefers to do her shopping without any distractions from us. And so we proceeded with exploring other parts of the market. As we stepped foot at the end of it, or rather, we thought it was the end of it… GOSH! IT IS LIKE STEPPING INTO ANOTHER SHOPPING SPREE! A much bigger market or night market with a huge huge huge crowd. GOSH. There is no way we could ever find fritzie here. Definitely no way. And so, we joined in the crowd to explore a whole new world. Hahas But still, we tried to keep an eye on any person who looks similar to fritzie. Oh and then there is this corner which we turned into not long after. Everyone stood still. So still. I was kinda stunned. Like what’s wrong with the people here. Most stood still except a few who are like us, trying to figure out the situation. And soon, I held steven and vina from moving on as soon as I realized that the thai national anthem is playing through the public announcement system. Wow. Didn’t know thais are to patriotic. Hahs After standing still for around a minute or so, the crowd sprung into life again =)
And later I spotted this stall selling this same extremely amazing thai ice-cream that May-yo treated us yesterday. I hurriedly went over and got myself one!! Hehs Felt as if I was in heaven after savouring every mouth of it. Heee.. Vina is always attracted to almost every stall that sells accessories and those that are on some crazy sale. I remembered one which says buy one free TWO!!! Hahas. Vina’s eye immediately sparkled. Oh and there’s this one too. Packed with ladies. SERIOUSLY PACKED!! And vina hurriedly went over to squeeze in. lols. Well, luckily I had my beloved ice-cream with me while waiting. Poor steven. Hahahaha.
Darkness sank in at around 7pm. The pain of our feet is killing us. But STILL… fritzie is nowhere to be seen. This is really scary, cuz we really dunno how she is. And we couldn’t really go back to our hotel room cuz the key is with fritzie. Well, at least the good thing is that she’s alone and she has the key which I passed it to her earlier in the day. That’s why sometimes I really think things do happen for a reason. We really want to head back to our hotel at this time. It’s getting late and our stomachs are still empty. The key… =\ What if fritizie isn’t back yet?! Suddenly as we were walking towards JJ Mall, I was struck by an idea of calling our room. I am just so SMART!! =D Okay, and we searched around for a public phone and called the hotel. And when we were connected to our room’s phone… SOMEONE ANSWERED! And that’s fritzie, of course. Hahas GOSH, we were so relieved. She told us how she missed us. Awww.. =) Hahahs “did you cry?” we wondered. She claimed she didn’t. haha. But her voice, erm, sounds rather different. Hehs. Well, at least we know she’s safe. Thank God. So the three of us hurried back to our hotel.
Back in our room, fritzie had a whole big pile of stuffs. Vina got it right. Fritzie was having her time of her life shopping around still. Hahahs Didn’t asked much as the hungry souls rushed out in a hurry to get ourselves dinner. We packed thai food at some of the road stalls near the hotel. Since, we’re in thai, might as well give it a try. Hahs And it’s around 8.30pm and we have not much choice left as the malls are all closed. Lazy people. With our hands full of packets of food, we happily headed back to our room for dinner. Whee. It’s really nice sharing the food we bought while eating on our beds… Playing cards and talking about the whole unforgettable incident this afternoon at the same time =)
♥ No greater love than this.1 x 9:53 PM
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Day2 in Bangkok.
Woke up incredibly early to get ready for the canal tour we signed up at the airport. It was really hard to pull ourselves up as we got only four hours of rest, at most. As soon as we got down to the lobby, we were greeted by our private tour guide. May-yo. She’s really friendly and her actions are funny too. Her English wasn’t really good but she made an effort in remembering our names. Ricky, Steven, Monica (fritzie’s msh name), Vina. Ricky, Steven, Monica, Vina. Ricky, Steven, Monica, Vina. And a while later, it evolved to… Ricky, Steven, Monaco, Sophia… Hahahs. Monaco is a really cool name for fritzie I think. =p hehs. The private van was cool =) A super big van with just the four of us. I felt so like a VIP. And so, May-yo briefed us on Bangkok and the tour that we were about to have. Her simple English was still understandable most of the times. But at times, she was like "PHEW~~I don’t even get myself, how can you?" hahs
She treated us really well because she said we reminded her of her sibilings. So, she tried her best to take care of us like little kids. "You guys are very nice people" "I am very happy today!" She said. She is so alive and so excited being with us. I just love the feeling of making someone happy and so welcomed! It's really nice and heart warming =)
On the ferry, May-yo climbed onto the boat in a flash to get seats for us while we were slowly trying to balance ourselves as we get onto it.
I'm on WATER!!
Basically the whole tour is just showing us the life of the people staying by the river and the many thai temples and buildings.
Halfway through the tour, we stopped over at this snake farm. We couldn’t be bothered to pay and watch those eerie creatures. Rather save the money for shopping instead ;) hahahs Steven treated himself to this thai coconut and so we settled down to talk about our plans later.
Steven decided to pose with his coconut.
Our private tour guide...
with us.
Chilling out and discussing bout our plans for the day
3 more days left, and so we had gotta maximize our time. There’s just one thing to plan actually. Shopping =D
May-yo treated us to this really superb thai ice-cream. Was AWESOME!! She's really nice to us. "Ricky!!" "Please give me a SMILE". That's something she keeps telling me when I bored. hahahs. Not just that, it's just funny when she calls MONACO or sophia. lols!!
A photo at the end of the tour. Thanks May-yo!
After the tour, we headed off for the Catucak market. Goodness, it was really burning hot when we arrived there. So we hurriedly search for a shelter to have lunch first. And we found one in the middle of the market. Fritzie couldn't take her eyes off the waiter. Her hormones were raging throughout her entire lunch till she gotta take down TWO BIG BOWLS of rice to compensate for the loss of energy. Ahahhas The restaurant was really unprofessional. They served our dishes but didn’t give us any cutleries. Hmm…I didn’t know that thais eat with their bare hands or fingers. And then as we were almost finishing our meal, we realized that they haven’t serve us the bread to complete our meal. Haih…I thought that was supposed to be served like BEFORE the meal. Well, that’s just not it. The unforgettable part was when we asked for the bill. hahs The first bill was a blank piece of paper, stating nothing but just the total amount. And being young, trouble-making tourists, we asked for a detailed breakdown of the bill. The fritzie's cute waiter stunned. Maybe he didn’t really get what we meant. So we somehow actioned out what we trying to say and got the message across. Ahaha. I felt quite bad for him as he sat down not far away to list down the food that we ordered. One by one. And then…… The amount didn’t tally with the first bill. OKAY, we were quite disturbed this time round. And we called for THAT waiter AGAIN. He himself seemed puzzled, but took the bill and did some recalculations again. Feeling rather embarrassed to put him into such situation, fritzie and vina insisted that we should stand up for our rights. I think so too. And I was really curious how the guy is gonna get an excuse on that. A while later, he came back and said that the bowls of rice cost 15batt each instead of 10batt (which we enquired earlier). He gave us a smile and apologized. After all the "trouble" we caused him, we thanked him for clarifying our doubts and laughed. It’s weird. But I guess we’re just being too friendly. Because, actually, we were stunned. Like what the hell??!? He can just increase the price of the rice just like that? Oh well, because of the language barrier, we would rather save ourselves the energy to do more shopping after this.
Phew… so much to say in day 2! And the highlight of the day was what happened later. Goodness. Gonna leave that big chunk for the next post. Turning in soon. Good nites ricky =) Love ya! =D
XOXO.
♥ No greater love than this.1 x 12:50 AM
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
It’s exactly one week after the Bangkok trip. A 4days 3nights trip. Think it would be better if we had more days and of course, more MONEY to spend over there. Hahas
Day 1 Flight was at 1340hr. The four of us, Fritzie, Vina, Steven and I took this cab to the airport from my house. Being all so excited about the trip, even though we’re still in Malaysia and JUST on our way to the airport, I guess Vina had filled half of her camera’s memory with our camwhoring pictures in the cab itself. Hahaha.
Glam shot 1
Glam shot 2
Studying about Bangkok.
And so many more. Took so many just to get her picture perfect shot due to the anti-shake feature which refused to function properly, somehow. Fritzie on the other hand, aside from participating in the camwhoring, she was pretty amused in pronouncing the Malay words she found on the road signs. “Berhenti” “KLIA” (which she pronounced as CLE-A, too much reading of CLEO magazines). Etc etc
At the airport, we checked in our empty luggage bags. Haha. Empty so that there’s room for us to lug all our stuffs back! =D Fritzie had this craving for ice-cream so we headed to McD to look for a seat. It was packed! All because it’s the only fast food outlet there. It was there we when I just realized that there’s a time difference between KL and Bangkok as I was looking at our itinerary. I was wondering why the hell the flight back to KL takes THREE hours while the flight to Bangkok is just ONE hour. For a moment I was thinking maybe the return flight will stopover at some place or fly at a slower speed. Hahs.
Arrived at Bangkok at 1445hr, Bangkok time.
Just arrived! =D
The immigration was pretty different from the ones at Singapore, as in they asked me to look into their webcams for photo-taking. Hahs. I feel like a criminal. Just that they didn’t require us to hold a number to be taken with the photo. I wonder how many unglam pictures they have, especially people/tourists after a tiring flight. Oh well, then the guy asked me, “where will you be staying in Bangkok?”. I stunned. Gosh, I am still so unfamiliar with the names of the Thai places/hotels. While I was trying my best to recall and blurt out some thai words, the guy smiled and just told me to write Asia Hotel on the visa.
Finding the way around Bangkok isn’t an easy task, really. Even the cabbie wasn’t very sure where our hotel is. He drove us around, trying his best to ask for directions from the passer-bys. “oh no, don’t tell me….”, Vina kept on freaking out as the driver drove pass some really rundown buildings. We didn’t really know how our hotel really looks like as we just booked them online. Some places we passed by are really those alley which are really eerie and disgusting. It was really funny to imagine ourselves living in such an environment. Like a mini wet-market just below the place we live, how we can just walk down the stairs to get food or order delivery from the stall holders. Hahahas. The scenes was just hillarious. We laughed really hard and I almost got a stomachache. But deep inside we were praying hard that our hotel would be far from it. Hahs. And a while later, we were surrounded by malls!! Our prayers were answered! =D
Malls.
Malls.
and more Malls...
Fritzie's excited by the malls.
So am I =)
And STILL MORE!!
Well, the good thing, at the end, our hotel turned out to be elegant and nice just somewhere at the doorstep of all the shopping malls as describe in all the forums online!! Yay =)
After settling down, the hungry souls went out to scout for food when it was only around 6pm. BANGKOK TIME. So, basically, it should be 7pm Malaysia/Singapore time. No wonder we were that hungry even though the sky is still so bright. We went MBK for food and did some market survey first. Didn’t want to splurge on the very first day, BUT still, I gave in to getting myself two t-shirts =D hahhs Fritzie and Vina got themselves shades as they want to be more tourist-looking in the photos for the next few days. Hahahas.
Ohh, we gave the Skytrain a go! The train system was really stupid, I think. We headed to the ticketing office to buy the tics and she gave us a whole stack of COINS. So basically, their job is just exchanging coins as commuters need to slot them one by one into the ticket machine to get the tics. It just reminded me of buying tokens to play arcade. Tsk tsk. Fritzie’s first reaction right after we boarded the train is posing right in the middle of the train and asking for a photo!!! But...we took ourselves first. Hahahah.
And she responded to it a while later. =)
Our train tics.
We can only do it for the first stop as the next was an interchange, so the whole train was quite packed.
Oh wells, I’ll save Day2 for later. So that I have something to do later =P. Shall relax a while on the piano and watch teevee! =D
