Bangkok Day 5 - Departing from Bangkok, Home sweet home back to Singapore!

 

Hello readers! It was our last day in Bangkok. We was taking the night flight, departing around 9pm and reaching Singapore around midnight, so initially we asked if we can extend to late checkout, but i think glow hotel was overbooked so even when we offer to pay for extension of late checkout, we was unable to get any extension of late check out. Jieying went to check with her hotel and they were able to provide them late check out until 2 or 3pm. initially, we thought of placing our luggage with the concierge but since JY was able to have the late checkout, so we brought our luggage to their room until it was time to check out. Hahaha.

 I was playing a dancing game with JY on our mobile so the guys were more than happy to use their phones as well without us grumbling.

After we checked out, we place our luggage at the centrepoint concierge first as we thought we could come back and retrieve it later. We went to Central world for our lunch before settling down in one of this casual restaurant for some thai food.

Tom yum soup! yums!

 After our lunch, we were exploring around the mall because it was huge! They have more than 500 stores and 100 over restaurant plus some other recreational activities.

On our way back, Terence wanted to buy some of his apparels in platinum mall so we agreed to have separate shopping time and meet back at the hotel at the agreed timing. This time round, i am more careful with my spending because we didn't have enough baht when we reached airport the other time and to take a cab to the airport so i was making sure that we have enough baht to last us on our last day. Haha

Terence wanted to take the train back to the airport, because he thought it was cheaper as it cost only less than $2 back to the airport. This is possible because the other time, when i travel with JJ & JY, we took the train back to the airport. At that time, I was pushing my overweight luggage weighing more than 25kg walking from centrepoint to taking the nearest BTS before changing to the railway airport link at Phaya thai station. It was quite tiring la. During the transition, JJ was helping me to carry my luggage up to the train platform because we had to take the staircase and there were no lift. I thought it was quite taxing. While it is possible to take the train, i wouldn't want to walk under the hot sun again pushing our heavy luggage again if there were better alternative like taking a cab. It may cost more than $2 however, it's convenient and we can travel back to the airport with ease.

During my texts with JY as they were still shopping while we were resting at the hotel lobby, i was telling her that we can take a cab because there are 4 of us, we have more than 4 luggage and even though taking the train will be cheaper but this time round i would prefer to take a cab instead. I think Terence was trying to convince me to take the train but i was not really for the idea. I wanted to suggest that they can take the train if they want and we can go for the cab and meet at the airport but i didn't want to appear offensive even though my intentions was not to force them into taking a cab if they doesn't really want and vice versa. So eventually, they didn't insist on taking the train anymore and taking the cab together.

So we get the person to book for us, issue us the ticket and call us when the cab here. It was a big cab that allows us to put all our luggage and we have enough space to sit comfortably and rest on our way to the airport. I think it was so comfortable that i dozed off in the cab and only awake when we were reaching the airport. Hahahaha.

We went to check in before looking for a place to have our dinner! Our last thai food in bangkok airport.

I have been looking for asahi beer during this trip but i couldn't find any, so i ordered one when i saw the restaurant sell asahi beer! 

I tend to ensure we reach early in the airport so that we will not be late for boarding, so while we were waiting near the boarding gate area, there were a baby crying non-stop. It was quite irritating but i thought the baby and its parents were taking other flight until they told me it seems they are taking the same flight as us and i was like OMG. I have expected a crazy ruckus in the plane later.

As we were boarding, i was surprised to met my friend, Belinda as she work under Jetstar and was one of the crew in the plane. Before the plane start to take off, the baby has been crying and it is quite nerve-wrecking and the parent's doesnt seem to know how to handle the baby because it was so irritating that many other passengers like me were expressing their frustration as they were looking at the back where the baby is located at.

As much as i understand that it's normal for a baby to cry as much as they want, but i thought the parent should have done something about it to find out what is exactly wrong with their baby. The baby couldn't stop crying at all! Instead of carrying the baby up and down, they didn't really try to figure out what their baby want because the crying last throughout the whole flight. i should be thankful at least this is not a 10hour flight.

That's when i decide if we ever had a baby in future, the baby should stay at home because i wouldn't want to get stuck in such an embarrassing situation and creating so much nuisance to the other passengers on board. It's just too inconsiderate. Beside there are too much stuff to bring if you are travelling with a baby. Too troublesome.

We was so glad when the plane has landed safely in changi airport. 

I shall end this post for now.

Till then.

Bangkok Day 4 - Platinum Fashion Mall, Chatuchak weekend market - Big C supermarket - Talad Neon Night Market

Hello readers! This will be our day 4 in Bangkok, our last night in Bangkok as well even though we were taking the evening flight back tomorrow. We decided to have japanese cuisine, so we went to Platinum mall, this japanese restaurant is located on the same level of the food court. I ordered a little bit of everything and realised later that i had ordered so much. The food is pretty good! You definitely can try this restaurant because it was pretty cheap compared to the price we paid back in Sg if we ordered exactly the same.

I was surprised the staff even asked if we would like to have coffee/tea after our meal, before serving us this coffee pudding. We didn't ordered this but i guess it was complimentary for us. Haha

This was our total bill, converting back to sgd it cost only $71 for this meal for 4 person! Which mean it cost only $17 per pax! 

After our meal, we continued our shopping at Platinum mall because we didn't really shop on the first day before Terence was saying whether he should buy his pants/polo tee back in chatuchak weekend market. He didn't bought it previously. Since we are pretty free on that day, so we grab back to Chatuchak and we continued more shopping again. But i didn't shop for long because most of the times, it was Jeremy who bought more items than me, there were no suitable clothing for me so eventually i told him i shall wait for him at this clock tower and i was using my Hello kitty fan while resting.

This time we visit Big C supermarket on our last night so that we might not end up spending so much on the snacks. Jieying was the shopping queen of Big C previously. Hahaha, we try the tuk tuk from Chatuchak to drop us at the central plaza so that we can visit the Big c supermarket nearby. 

Big C is very popular with tourists as most of the times i will see many sweeping all the snacks off the shelves and the staff will quickly replenish it again. However, i realised not all the items are cheap in Big C, so this time round i didn't really bought alot more than previously.

The first trolley was mine and the second one was JY. Obviously she is going to be the biggest spender in Big C again. Hahahaha. 

As our hands were full with all the Big C plastic bags after our purchase, we decided to return back to our hotel to put all the stuffs before heading out for dinner at Talad Neon night market.

Staying in Pratunam has this perk because everywhere is within walking distance as long as you can walk. Hahaha. The talad neon night market were more lively compared to the first day that we visit. More stalls are open but there are lesser people, and the stalls are pretty spaced out so it was easy to shop around.  We ordered from a stall their fried rice, and it's so funny when they told us they have run out of seafood so they only have prawns and we say ok. The dish was serve to us after that and there is really only one prawn! Hahaha

We couldn't try the big platter of seafood at Rod fai night market previously, so we decided to order one and try it in Talad Neon! The plate is uncomplete because the person told us the popular fish need to wait so she serve us the other seafood first.

The grilled fish, don't be deceived by its first appearance. it's quite good so long you don't eat the skin because it's salty.

We had our dinner pretty late and we were trying to buy the popular siam banana. If you haven't heard or try it before, i think you should!

Their siam banana is similar to the one like Japan Tokyo banana, I can't really tell the difference between the two, but i know price is a major factor because it cost about 50 cent each for one siam banana while Tokyo banana is more expensive.

I thought this could be the perfect snack if you are returning back on your last day to bring back for your friends/colleagues because this is really good though it has a shorter life span and not advisable to keep for too long.

These bananas are sold in 7-11 convenience stores but initially when JY & Terence went to the one near our hotels, it was sold out. So they began to comb almost the 7-11 stores in our vicinity and they finally found one that were just replenishing. Before they start to comb down all these bananas off the shelves inside their shopping basket. They managed to help me buy some too. Haha

While they were finding, we went back to our hotel first to do some packing before meeting them at their hotel to collect, and i was amazed by how much siam banana they have purchase so i laid it on their table to take this photo! I love both original & chocolate flavour though majority of them like the original flavour.

Jeremy tried one and he like it so much that he went out early morning to find the siam bananas again. In fact, i think they purchase more than just the amount of banana in this photo above because JY & Terence bought somemore at the airport before our flight. Haha.

Initially, i suggested to play the game of in between and using these bananas as the bet but JY does not want to play as she was worried of losing all the bananas she has bought. Hahahhaa.

It was raining heavily so we were staying in their room playing some poker cards before heading back to our hotel. Centrepoint has a sidegate to enter however it close at midnight, so we had to walk one big round to their main entrance and that's when i realised there were quite a number of massage parlour that we didn't discovered previously because we had always been using the side gate.

With that, i shall end this post for now.

Till then!

Bangkok Day 3 Chatuchak Weekend Market, Rod Fai Night Market AGAIN!

Hello readers! Day 3 of our bangkok trip, our itinerary of the day was Chatuchak weekend market, Rod Fai Night Market. 

We start our day at Pratunam morning market because we wanted to see if there is a difference with the items they were selling if we go on different days. Most of the times, they are pretty much the same, but as JY didn't shop on the first day, so she went early with Terence in the morning to shop while it's our turn to sleep in. Hahaha, it was her turn to buy some breakfast and share with us.

Both Jieying & I are pretty familiar with Chatuchak weekend market, this is a must visit place for tourists if you haven't been there. This was the first time for the guys. Some of their apparel are going as low as 100 baht! Both of us love going to chatuchak because the items are really cheap! If this is the first time you are planning to visit Chatuchak, you can refer to my previous post where i have written a guide to better navigate around in Chatuchak market over here. As they have multiple entrance, at some entrance they do hand out a map for you to refer, otherwise it's better to get a map before you head down so you will be able to identify how you can navigate around the area and visit the sections that you want to shop as different sections sell different variety of items.

This time round, we took grab because there were 4 of us and it was pretty cheap compared to taking the train. It can get pretty hot in Chatuchak so usually i would bring an umbrella, a portable fan and wear as comfortable as you can. It's very common to find many stalls in Chatuchak that offer engraving of name on your selected design and color passport cover, so initially we were shopping together but Terence want to purchase more than 4-5 passport cover for his parents at the same time making the price comparison among the stalls. Usually, i think the price would be pretty much the same, if there is one particular stall that charge lower than the rest, i am sure the quality might be compromised. But anyway most of the items is already quite cheap so i suggested we continue our shopping separately first because i am a fast shopper, i don't take too long to decide what i want unless the price is in thousands. Haha, think during the few hours, i have bought a few set of my pajamas, t-shirts, shorts, Jeremy bought some polo tee, pants and when i text Jieying to check whether they were done and she told me she was quite frustrated because she haven't shop anything as all this while as she was waiting for Terence. Hurhur.

We meet up halfway when Terence is finally done and we were shopping together before we decide to had our lunch.

In chatuchak market, there is one area that you can sit down and order the dishes, so we had our lunch there and this was the 2nd time that i visit the same place but this time round we ordered the satay and they were pretty good and cheap!

Their pineapple rice in a pineapple, haha

We decide to went for a massage because i tried once previously in Chatuchak and it was cheap at $8 for head,shoulder and foot massage for 45min! We walked too much during our first trip and my feet were sore but the soreness effect were gone after the massage. So i wanted to visit the same outlet back in Chatuchak, but i couldn't really recall how it looks like anymore.

There are quite a few massage services inside the chatuchak, you will have to shop further inside the indoor sections to locate most of the massage services. So eventually we settled for one, about $10 for about 1hour, Jieying didn't want to have the massage so three of us went for the massage while she went on her own for some shopping!

I have low pain tolerance so usually i will tell the masseur to go gentle and lesser force for my massage. I will reiterate more than once even if they might not understand english to make sure they get the message. My masseur were pretty fine, but i couldn't stop laughing at Jeremy because his masseur were exerting great force on him, and there were some parts he had told the masseur its quite painful but the masseur simply ignored him and he were trying to tolerate the pain, it was too funny and i kept laughing because i think he doesn't really want to admit it's too painful but after the session, i was teasing if he would like to come again and try but he say no thanks. The first and last session. Hahahaha, but i think maybe the masseur have something against him because the masseur were really using lot of force on him, and i thought it was quite extreme kind.

Usually most of the shops in Chatuchak market will start to pack their stuff and close by 5-6pm, however there are many roadside stalls being setup at the road side or the walking pavement that tourists can still shop for clothes, accessories and many more! We were staying till late in the evening this time, so we managed to shop some items from the roadside stalls. It's so easy to set up a business there because all you need to have could be just a mat and u just laid out all your stuffs on it and hoping someone will pick it up and pay for it. 

I found this chocolate prata this time round that Jieying wanted to try previously, it smell really good until i see the seller was putting lots of condensed milk and i was like, omggg,but it taste good and i know this is better shared instead of individual because of its calories. 

After that, we decided to go Rod Fai night market, the same market that i went the day before but didn't get to shop anything because it was raining. When we went there, it was very crowded. The expectations were different from the last time we went. Not sure if its because we went during the mourning period but the crowd were lesser, but it was pretty crazy as there were snake long queue everywhere and you have to follow the crowd to get pass most of the stalls, which can pretty dampen up your mood especially if the ventilation is not too good. 

We bought some finger foods to try at the night market,

 

 Watermelon juice that JY & Terence queue up to buy and i was trying to escape from the crowd because its too crowded.

We wanted to have our dinner in one of the stalls but most of them are full, so eventually i was trying to find a place to settle down because my legs were sore again after all the walking. There was one store that were not open but they have their bench piled up outside the shop space so i suggest to take out their bench so we can sit on it instead of sitting on the floor, i took care our belongings while they went to buy the foods so we can have a picnic like dinner outside the shop space. Hahaha

I noticed that the price of the items selling at rod fai night market could be on the high side compared to other night markets, mainly because its very accessible, you can shop and eat with a wide range of selections of foods plus there are several bars that you can hang out to have some drinks so it attract all the crowd and naturally the possible reason for items being priced higher.

We didn't get to shop much before we grab back to our hotel, shall end this post for now.

till then!