Hello readers! Yes, i am travelling to BKK again for the 2nd time this year. But this time with my bff, JY. After trying the different airlines such as Jetstar,Cathay Pacific, this time i am trying the Thai airlines! It's a girl trip this time, a week ago we went in JB to get our hair fix and nails done!
Having our lunch before heading to the salon
Found this great spot to take photo after our hairdo!
Went for some shopping, dinner before heading back to SG!
Taking some photos before boarding~
As we were not rushing anywhere so we took the airport railway link and change to BTS before walking to the hotel i have booked. We stayed at the Glow Hotel @ Pratunam.
It was the second time i stayed in this hotel. It was already night when we check in and the staff upgraded our room! Yay!
However we was pretty frustrated when we had to wait very long for the grab to pick us up. Glow hotel pratunam do not have a proper hotel drop off point thus what we used to do last time was to book grab so the grab driver will come and pick us up by the road side, so the driver didn't warn us that they couldn't pick us up if there were police around. We wait and wait because we expect traffic jam along that same stretch of road towards platinum mall. But when the car finally arrived after checking its the correct carplate and just when we try to board the car, the driver refused to stop or open the door!
We try to knock on his window a few time and he simply drive off! I was so mad because i was thinking wtf is this driver doing not letting us to board after we have been waiting for so long! Most of the Thai driver are not good with their english so when i text him, he told me 'police' so i was asking if he could turn in and come to the back of Glow hotel but due to language barrier maybe he couldn't understand what i try to ask him to do so the ride was cancelled and we had to wait for another one. zz
This time i try to check with the second driver if they could pick us if there were police, to which he replied the same, he can't pick us if there is police. WTF. My guess is they have banned grab driver from stopping at the roadside to pick up passengers. When i ask the reason, he told me there will be a fine if they are being caught.
So no choice, we ended up taking tuk tuk. Tsk. What a day man.
After our shopping at Chatuchak, maybe it's not the first time i been here so we didn't shop much and we decided to return back to the hotel to rest first before heading to another night market.
At Chatuchak market, it was quite hard to get grab, initially we try to call for tuk tuk, but after checking the price, we decided not to. We were only willing to pay the price that we pay the tuk tuk to drive us here earlier so there were several drivers that did not budge after he told us the price we quote, which i am pretty fine. We could always take BTS.
Until there was a persistent tuk tuk driver, he try to bargain with us, we were just walking along the stretch of road towards BTS. i think 3 or 4 time, my answer was the same. Eventually he, on his own accord, agreed to pick us up at our price. So without much suspicious, we took the ride.
Tips : Never try to use your phone while sitting a tuktuk, to me, since its like a oversized motorcycle, without any windows, i feel that anyone could just snatch your phone or bag if you are not alert enough. So i usually put my sling bag in front of me, and keep a look out for any motorbikes coming at your side during your ride. Stay alert at all times.
During our ride, this tuk tuk driver try to communicate to us in simple basic english, like one stop, for him to pump free petrol. To which, i thought it's ridiculous because if you want to pump petrol, you can do it after we alight, not during the journey when you are sending your passengers right!
So i told him a straight 'No', send us back to the hotel. He try a few times but i was firm and stern. So he had no choice but to abort his scam operation. If you don't know, some tuk tuk drivers will bring their passengers to some shops where they could draw commission if the customers purchase some items from the shop. Most of the times, the customers are obliged to pay for the items when they enter the store, usually out of fear. So if possible, try not to let them bring you to those places. You just got to be fierce enough. To me, all this kind of tuk tuk drivers simply do not deserve any sympathy. Maybe some might justify these black sheep tuktuk driver's act that they are trying to make a living. If you are not lazy and try to charge high rate to your passengers in a bid to do lesser work, but pick up multiple rides to and fro with fair pricing, work harder, you can still earn the $ you deserve! Taking shortcut like this and putting others in a difficult position. You deserve to be shamed and more tourists should be aware of such scam and avoid falling prey to their trap.
In my mind, i was already thinking of the possible ways to defend, afterall there were only two of us. If he try to be funny i am going to strangle him from the back before he could even attack us.
Eventually because there was a jam along that same stretch of road, he didn't drop us near our hotel but some walking distance from the hotel, but i didnt argue with him further in case he try to be funny again.
However this incident has make me so turned off that i really hate to take tuk tuk whenever i visit BKK, if possible i would choose grab over tuk tuk. You won't get sticky after the long ride in grab compare to tuk tuk too. Of cos not all tuk tuk drivers are like this, but if you have encounter this kind of tuk tuk driver spoiling their own market, one time is enough.
After we returned back to the hotel, since we couldn't get grab at the roadside in front of Glow Hotel, we decided to walk to Centrepoint @ Pratunam. Haha i stay before in that hotel and they have decent drop off point so i thought it would be a good idea to grab over there especially there are free drinks and big lobby for us to sit and wait for the grab driver. It works though! But due to Glow drop off point, i might think twice staying here again next time. Not because they are not good, but it's not an ideal place for us to call Grab which we usually need to when we travel to multiple place.s
Liab Duan Night market
We visit the new night market call the liab duan night market. It was quite far, about 20-30min away from our hotel. Currently i think you can only take cab or grab to reach there. No nearest BTS station around. It was a different experience as most of the visitors are locals except for some of the China tourist group, but even so, it was not many,
I used to visit the Rod Fai night market but have realise it has become too touristy with mark up price of its food that i stop going over there. Not strange considering how there is just a BTS outside so majority will visit this night market. But for Liab Duan night market, the crowd is still manageable and you can slowly shop for things that might catch your eyes.
The next day, which was a sunday, we went to get our breakfast at Pratunam market, spicy noodles. This was really spicy and we had to buy drinks after that. Hahaha,
We went to Platinum fashion mall and JY saw this and we order the rose milk tea. One of my all time favourite now!
It was also in this mall, that i bought an Ocarina as a gift for my chartered bus driver which i be sharing in my next post! I was so attracted by the sound of Ocarina and he mentioned he used to play band so i think it should be easy for him to learn how to play this instrument!
After our shopping, we went to Big C, which is just next to this mall. Big C is crowded as usual, we spend close to one hour plus over here and it was only when we were queuing up that i saw the sign, the Big C is open until 2am daily! Tsk, so next time we should really put this shopping segment last since most of the shops closed by 9 or 10pm. Haha
How much we bought and how we walked back to the link bridge to return back to our hotel.
After that, we went to MBK mall, it was a mall that is selling all the tech gadgets, handphone cover, camera, all the other boring stuffs to me. I only remember the last time we are here was with JY & JJ, we spend our first day playing arcade and bowling here. This place is huge btw, it just reminds me of Singapore Sim Lim square.
After MBK, we went back Siam Square to shop and JY wanted to try this new BBT in BKK.
Too many bubble tea stall nowsdays. The hype for this is probably getting your drink from the tiger's mouth.
We went back to have our dessert again at After You.
As this is not the first time we are travelling together, i am happy to have JY as my travel partner, always being so accommodating and taking care our share funds so i don't have to look for money to pay for our transport & foods.
To many more trip together with our earlgreymilkteaw3js!
Till then.
