onward to thailand !


SawaDee-Krap !!! Just returned from a 5 day trip to bangkok with the fukhai, Xinhao and ken ! the trip was good ! but would have been great if not for the fact that i lost my camera halfway thru ... haiz .. well ... wats done is done ... whoever got the camera will get his just deserts soon enough ...


fk,xh and me at waiting area


we must be crazy to go on with the trip admist the protesting and all that but thankfully, we arrived back home safe and sound ... the only hint of the potential danger that lurked ard us was the reluctance of taxi/ tuk tuk drivers to take us to certain places and a lorry filled with protesters that we happen to catch sight of on our first day ... yea ! other than that , all was as usual in the busy and vibrant streets of bangkok ...

me and ken ... first 2 arrive !


On with the programme !!!

Day 1 :
the 4 of us met at changi airport to catch the Thai AirAsia flight in the morning ... the tickets were really cheap ! haha .. since the flight was only 2hrs , it felt no different from other commercial airlines ... i'm now offically a budget airline convert !
take off !


We touched down in the land of smiles ard noon local time ... there , we took a meter taxi to mandrin hotel, left our luggage and hopped into a tuk tuk to find our lunch ... initially we wanted to go MBK for lunch but was pursuaded by the driver to try another place ... obviously the driver could get commission from our lunch since the place he brought us to a restaurant which sold food at exhorbitant prices ... we took a look at the menu and left the place ... well ... eventually we settled at a food court beside MBK .. The food there was excellent ! Cheap and good ! but we had some trouble ordering the food since the descriptions were all in thai .. we ended up just pointing to whatever stuff they had on display and they responded by pointing tto the soup, vege etc ... while we just nodded our big-heads ... in the end , it turned out really well ! our first taste of thai food ! i had pork noodles which are superior than what i've tasted for the rest of the trip as well in singapore ! A great way to start the trip !

our friendly neighbourhood tuk-tuk driver


hmmm .. what to eat ?


our first meal !


Next up was shopping ... wat else to do in MBK ?! bought 2 shirts there for half the price relative to singapore ! from insetan plus on sales mah ! so no compromise on quality ! haha ... then we moved on to Siam centre and paragon which was quite high-end ... not for us cheapos ...

outside paragon : omg ! hermes !

cool huh ?


After shopping we had dinner at a roadside stall ...somewhere near the shopping district as well ... cant really rem where though ... along the way we saw a small alley leading away from the main roads ... we decided to take a look there. since the alley was rather dark and littered with stalls and homes , we figured that this place represented a little-seened part of bangkok and were simply curious ... after all, we came to explore and try new expriences! our journey wont be complete without it ...there, we chanced upon a reverse osmosis water dispenser where u can refill ur water bottle of 1 baht ! tink singapore can pick a leaf from here ... also bought much needed toothpaste (7 baht) since all 4 of us relied on each other to bring along a tube, and we ended up with zero toothpaste ( we've learnt to live on each other since sec sch ... ) .. even visited a place harbouring roosters , most prob for cock fighting ... the alleys were dark and damp, and many lived in 1 room shleters alongside the roads ... a huge contrast from the shopping malls outside ... after half an hour we were finally out of the alleys !

the reverse osmosis bottle refill .. singapore shld have this !


place your bets !


Up next was Pat pong, Bangkok's infamous red light district ... we shopped ard a little and visited afew bars but the so called main event of that night for us was the thai girl show ... a show where sick (and curious) ple pay to watch girls do stuff with their genitials .. like putting out candles ( is that biologically possible ?) , blowing a whistle ( omg ...) and playing with a razor-laced ribbon( sick !) .. i can say that we were cheated of our cash there ... paid so much to watch such a lousy show ... every one of the girls on stage ( lets assume they're all females for convience sake ... im EXTREMELY SURE not all are ... ) cant do much but shake ard a bit ... and i tink the main star of the show was as heavy as all four of us put together ! ... for the record im not gonna watch such a stupid show again ... bleah ! fortunately i managed to get some shut eye that night ...


drinks up !

hic ...

gentle giant ..


Day 2 :
today was the most eventful day of all .. afternoon ( we spent morning eating breakfast, me n fk in the hotel while ken and xh ate outside the hotel since we only had 2 complementary breakfasts.. this was to rotate everyday .. ) saw us in china town where we explored the area ( and shopping too ! ) ... not much to see ... china town was just .. china town ! haha ... its noisy and bustling with activity! from there we walked back to the hotel ...

shopping for snacks in china town


next up was traditional thai massage ! at first we went to surawong plaza but decided that the one we saw at china town looked more professional ... so yet again we hopped down to china town ... a good choice too ! 6oo baht for 2 hrs for a good massage ! next time ur in bangkok be sure to drop by !

our lunch

After massage me n fk procceded to lumpini stadium to watch muay thai match ... took a tuk tuk there and exprience the worst jam ever ! imagine been stucked in the middle of a cross junction ! haha ... we managed to reach lumpini in one piece though .. there we had another surpirse .. a 2000 baht entry ticket ! ouch ... but it was a ringside seat and the experience totally made every buck worth ! omg ... it was truly exciting ! the crowd cheering for their teams ( made more exciting by the local bookie ) enhanced the exprience .. Every punch , every kickwere met by loud cheers ! i am truely amazed by the level of tolerance of damage these fighters can take ... tough training thru their life ... watching a real match and one on video is totally different ...

fighto !

xh and ken decided to go on a eating spree at china town ! tink they had a great time too ! generous proportions of bird nest, large prawns and other food at super value prices ! cool man ... at the end of it all we met at lumpini train station and proceeded to sam yam night market for more shopping and dinner ...


prawns ahoy !


fiddling with my camera at sam yam ... haiz

Day 3 :
sat, a shopping day for us ! we actually spent most of the day doing just that ... and you thought guys cant shop ! first stop : chuk-tuk-chap ( dunno how to spell so lets call it ccc) ! bangkok's famous weekend market ... the place is extremely HUGE ! we made a mistake of reaching there at 11am , when the sun's full scorch beamed on to us ... the place was filled with many ple , jostling along the small walkways between shops ... most of the shops sell the same stuff with ard the same prices but once in a while u'll come across a shop that sells more unique items or is willing to meet ur asking price ( rem to check for the quality of goods ) that makes the hustle worthwhile ...
don mess wif the stall owner ..



hello ?


We had lunch at a roadside stall ard 1 ... there was the last place i used my camera .. sigh ... next time we discovered my camera was lost it was already 4 plus .. we went back to the stall but to no avail ... frk ... well .. anyway the market was reaching closing time, we headed back to the hotel to unload our stuff ... also took the time to recover from my loss ...


roadside stalls


after that we travelled to sam yam for more shopping ! all the way till night ...



we took 2 days to cover ccc ... tink gals would take 2 weeks ...


medusa alert !


imho, ccc is a little overated as the cheapest place to get stuff ... their asking price is higher than sam yam for some stalls and it is not easy for non-seasoned hagglers to get a good price ... sam yam is a little more user friendly although most shops still overprice their items ... still, there are shops which sell their goods at super low asking prices (w/o bargaining ) compared to ccc or pat pong ... pat pong has the most overpriced goods ... still , it is worth taking a look at all 3 as they sell slightly different items ... take a look at MBK too as their prices there arent too shabby and in some cases cheaper than the night or weekend markets ! for better quality clothes and other stuff try siam paragon and the shopping centres nearby ... the price there is also higher though ...

streets of bangkok bangkok's mrt


Day 4 :
Today was shopping day as well .. tink we visited all the shopping places we had gone to the past few day on this very date ... ccc, pat pong ,mbk and sam yam ... for the first time since we arrived , we ate at a restaurant ... jap food at MBK for lunch ( cheap ! but not as good as sing ...) ... and Macdonalds at night just to see the difference between thai and sing fast foods ... i ordered big mac ! the burger was bigger but the sauce wasnt as nice ... still like the sing one ... mcnuggets sauce there costs 3 baht ! we tried all 3 flavours ( BBQ, chili and plum) and the spicy mcnuggets there which were really hot but tasty !


Jap food !

im lovin' it !

Day 5 :
our Last day ! woke up earlier to catch the thai motor show at bi-tech ... reach there ard 10am which according to the info counter starts at 10am ... apparently not .. it started at 12 noon .. so we had lunch there ... when the show finally started , our cameras started clicking as well ... Cars cars everywhere ! a cars lover's paradise ! but alas none of us were estatic about cars so we ended up wif more pics of motorgals instead ... haha ...

the car made popular by initial D

another star of the show ..


more attractions !



ever wonder why some cars sell better than others ?


after that we rushed back to MBK to get some food stuff , to the hotel to get our luggage , and finally to the airport to catch our flight ... had an expensive BK dinner there ... ard 255 baht ! over $10 for a meal ! ouch ...

the rain the other night wasnt caused by the weather or any fire ...


Again we took the air asia flight back to homeland airport ... my parents picked me up from there ... sure glad to see them !

home awaits us !



well ... thats it .. my trip to bangkok ! i wanna go thai again ! maybe to pattaya or puket ?! hmm ... maybe my next dive trip will be there ! haha .. SawaDee-Krap !