Bangkok Trip

Thailand is a place where most Malaysian will come to visit as it's located just above Malaysia, it's so near where you can actually go by car or van from Penang to Hatyai took only four hours journey. Bangkok is known as the shopping heaven and food heaven for people all over the world especially Malaysian and Singapore. The things selling there is cheap and famous as compared to here. Not with the poor currency now, I don't know where can I fly though flight ticket is cheap, the amount need to be spent for eating and hotel will be much higher compared to those days. 

Note: It was an overdue post, my trip there was actually last October.

So people will ask where to visit in Bangkok, isn't this a place for shopping, shopping and even more shopping or in another case drinking? As I planned my flight, I didn't really start my research on Bangkok. Almost everyone in Malaysia visited Bangkok at least once in their lifetime so it should be a great place to travel. I was thinking of the cheap clothing they mentioned on the social media, that night market and that delicious food. And being a very cheapskate person, I chose the cheapest flight which is flying on Monday and coming back on Thursday ticket. And only after that we scroll through the internet and found that most of the famous night market or spot/activities are open on Fri to Sun. I even missed out the chance to watch free Muay Thai show, which one on Sunday (Channel 7 Stadium near Chatuchak market) and another on Wednesday (MBK stadium but is closed down for renovation).

Luckily I had my sister with me this time round, she's a great planner and a very detail ones! You will know how detail she is if you ever had the chance to travel with her. She will have a screenshot on google map or shop/street picture; she will have the arrow and detail address on places to visit or hawker stall to munch on; she will list out all the must eat food, must buy things will price labelled so that we won't get cheated as a tourist though we are.

We reached Bangkok, Thailand around 3 pm. We took the airport bus orange in colour from Door 6 to Mo Chit BTS which cost us each 30baht, you then can move on to any station for BTS line. We are staying in Bangkok City hotel which is just 150m from Ratchathewi BTS. The location of this hotel is good, near to those famous malls and accessible to almost everywhere BTS, taxi and tuk-tuk are just outside the hotel, breakfast is delicious, and one last thing is the cheap hotel room cost around RM200 each person for 3 nights (we stay in a 2 person room with one extra bed), the only cons is the wifi wasn't good.

The first spot to visit, Asiatique! You can reach there by free shuttle boat, but if you want a faster way there's a lot paid ones available. The famous sign there is their Ferris wheel, you will see it from far the blue lighting with the word Mekong red on the center. I spent around 30 minutes just to get a good picture of it and of course that include a full shot of me (us), selfie and wefie :P Would love to stay here longer as there's a lot shop to explore, my favourite self-made stuff can be found lots here and the price wasn't the highest anyway, you can buy unique souvenir here. But due to time constraint, I need to rush for the shuttle boat and BTS hence I didn't manage to walk around the whole area.

Apart from the ferris wheel, the store and the design of walkway is artistic in their own way with all the cafe hype.

After a few walk around Saphan Taksin, this ends my first day.

Waking up very early the second day for Pratunam market. We just literally walk there walking distance around 15-20 minutes from our hotel. The crowd wasn't that huge on Tuesday early morning. It's more to like wholesale in the front part with narrow walkway considering all those wholesale people are carrying trolley, very pack and you couldn't really buy much here as there's a minimum buying on the same pattern of clothes. Walk till the end for a wider roadway and somewhere near a plaza or so, there's much little wholesale going on, they sell for 2 or 3 minimum pieces with this price and 1 with a slightly higher price but still consider cheap and the design is much more in trend. You can spend time shopping around there, but guys can feel pretty bored following. There's another alternative anyway to shop in a mall where I will take about it later which is much more comfortable but slightly further from the main town area of Bangkok.

After a bit of shopping, we walk back to the hotel for our breakfast. They provide a slightly different choice of breakfast each day. And definitely delicious enough as a hotel inclusive meal. We then rest awhile and continue our second-day journey.

Our second day is mainly planned to walk around the Chinatown. We went there by taxi and only that we found out that it could be the cheapest public transport in Bangkok if you are going by three people (even BTS ticket is higher). We visit the temples and more temples that day. The photo below is the Wat Traimit. And the next ones we just randomly pass by as we lost our way to the next spot where we previously planned. There are a lot more temples in Chinatown we found on the web such as Wat Mangkon Kamalawat and Wat Kanma Tuyaram which we planned to visit but end up very bored of walking so we went back after a random small walk at Sampeng and Itsaraphap Lane, where that place sell a lot of necklace, ring, accessories and stationery in bulk with cheap price. We walk in the Tesco Lotus supermarket too to look for alcohol but Bangkok actually had time limit on buying alcoholic drinks (do take note on that, it's a regulation that applies in all shop including 7-11). Chinatown is famous for selling gold too, you can see gold shop everywhere. I think their happening hour is around afternoon and night, if you plan to visit here don't come too early okay or else you will somehow end up like me. Not to mention my sister actually planned the whole day here and even list out at least 15 foods to try out here with pictures and all the information so that we don't get to the wrong ones but we end up not trying any one of them because we are still full from the previous breakfast and we end up eating random snack that we see straight.

After some rest, we continue our shopping journey at night to Platinum mall and Big C supermarket. Outside Platinum there's a small night market, things are unique, can have a look, I especially love their headband (my favourite florish pattern), regret buying only one. Platinum mall and Big C is linked by a pedestrian bridge. We went in a shop for quite some time buying all the to-buy-list from our list. Should have buy even more (regret again with the currency now and the price in Malaysia; with my extra luggage space from the previous trip; and with my leftover thai bahtI should have spent all of it before I return). I miss their instant noodles (tomyum and green curry flavour), the pocky (mango, banana, strawberry, chocolate), thai milk tea, seaweed, and Lay's chips. And another thing is that the tuktuk's driver there offer expensive car rate to fetch us back to the hotel and we end up carrying two bags of loads each and walk a good 30 minutes back to the hotel ourselves, definitely tough people we are. Very tiring actually, if you buy really a lot, just try to bargain a little and have a ride back.

The third day, we come to this victory monument place and only found it's in the middle of the roundabout. So we just spent some time taking picture on it from the pedestrian bridge. We later walk to a local boat noodles restaurant for some good boat noodles, not the famous fancy ones though, the taxi driver doesn't drive us to the exact place where we even showed him the address, he's trying to scam us I guess. But it's still great though we can walk and explore a little more of the village.

We then linger around Tops supermarket to wait for the rain to stop then we continue our journey by taxi to Union mall! This is the best mall to shop so far though it's a little far from the city Bangkok around an hour. I did most of my shopping here as I don't have the chance to explore Chatuchak market so this is it selling at cheap price, not retail and good quality with lesser people and good environment with air condition. Small tips here, shop from the bottom up as the few shops down there is cheaper compared to the upper ones for the same item. There's also some few own Bangkok design shop which quality are good with unique design. We did have some snack here before we leave, the food court sells cheap nice food! We limit ourselves on the time to leave as it will be a massive jam if we leave slightly later and the cost of taxi will be double, or else I would like to stay there and shop longer. At night we do allow ourselves to spend a little more by opting to ride tuk-tuk experiencing a little of Thailand to MBK just to have their famous steamboat branch dinner, MK restaurant. That night, we walk a little more around the street back to our hotel.

Here comes our last day in Thailand, we spent some time walking before the sunrise and some shopping opposite Pratunam mall, a little mall/shop opposite it selling cheap stuff where we bought a few stuff in it dad's purse, mum's bag, plain shirts, mum's CNY red shirt, fancy tube bra and panties. And then we purposely pass by Erawan Shrine to have a look on it. Anyway, we just watched it from the pedestrian bridge again, the sun is striking hot, we wanted to prevent ourselves from sweating as we checked out early morning and want to stay comfortable till our flight. We later visit the Siam area for some good lunch and dessert, we walk a little and spend some time doing our last minute shopping around the mall we didn't get to explore but still, Union mall wins! :P

Took the BTS back to the hotel and visit 7-11 for the last time for some snack and off we leave Bangkok. Will come back another time for their inner wear which is very comfortable, do check it out! Regretted buying so little of it. Anyway below is our haul for Bangkok, not very much compared to others. This is a wrap for our first Bangkok trip after we grown up! Will definitely be coming back again with my younger sisters for good stuff and definitely Sat/Sun will be considered and planned into our schedule next time for Chatuchak market where so many people brag about it.