After 7 eventful days, we have reached our last night in Thailand. We will be flying back tomorrow on the 1850 flight from Suvranabhumi Airport.

Today was shopping day, and we went to Mah Boon Krong Shopping Mall, Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Paragon, in that order today. The places became more and more upscale as we trekked along the entire shopping belt in the Siam Square Area, and in my personal opinion MBK was the best place to shop, in terms of prices and items on sale. They were more catered towards the youthful crowd (ie us) and the prices were much lower. Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Paragon offered more boutique and high class retail outlets which we not entirely interested in and did not have the cash to purchase items in.

MBK was a great maze with 7 levels, each offering their own shops and having their own layouts. Some floors were cramped with many individual shops hawking arts and crafts to imitation shirts and bags, while some levels were more spacious and catered to specific items like furniture etc. We took our breakfast in the food court before exploring the place.

Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Paragon were much grander in built and “higher-class”, with more stylish interior decor and even more stylish prices for their items. They had more of the usual shops you would find in an average mall in Singapore, like Bossini and U2, on top of boutique shops like Armani. Siam Paragon in particular housed many high class shops, like Jimmy Choo, and its much larger than the rest of the malls we visited. It easily dwarfs Vivocity, and the layout and decor of the place is much nicer. There is even an oceanarium in the basement, and the basement food area is filled with so many food shops. As you might have guessed, we were there mostly to take a look, instead of buy stuff, since the prices were out of our range. However, we did enjoy ice cream at the Swensen’s outlet in the basement. The ice cream sundaes were heavenly and absolutely sinful (must exercise more after the trip!) and they cost less than in Singapore.

 Tomorrow we will be visiting Chinatown, Little India and the National Museum (it was close from Monday to Tuesday). Language should not be much of a problem tomorrow at Chinatown. Hopefully we will be able to find the food items we plan to buy back in the places we visit tomorrow.

Today we woke up exceptionally late, since we had a late night the day before, sleeping at around 1.30am. Not that it mattered too much, since we had a rather light and easy itinerary today. We went to the historical Ko Rattanakosin area of Bangkok and visited the Royal Palace and various wats around the area. I must say we did it pretty much due to our tourist obligations but nevertheless the places we visited offered pretty sights with much cultural value and plenty of opportunities to take photos, even though its a bit too touristy and made up for my liking.

That said, the grandeur of places like the Royal Palace with its emerald buddha and
Wat Pho was undeniable and despite the throngs of camera button-happy tourists walking around, the trip was enjoyable and interesting. Roger will be providing much of the details of our trip through his photographs.

After finishing with the historical sites, we went for an afternoon movie at Mah Boon Krong (100 baht per person only! About less than 5 SGD per ticket, which is pretty cheap considering the quality of the theatre), watching The Banquet (yes I know we are a bit late). We went to the Patpong area after the movie to observe the nightlife there with its night bazaar, night clubs and of course, sex shows. Note that we went to observe, not participate, so keep those dirty thoughts away. For every 10 metres we walked down the street, we would be accostered by at least one guy holding a menu of lewd sex shows doing his best to persuade us to enter the night clubs.

Thats about it for today, we should be going to the Siam Square area tomorrow for what Singaporeans do best: visit shopping centres and look for good buys.Time for a bath now.

Photo time!!! But not so many this time since I’m really quite tired and most of the photos that I took today were of wats and ruins that look quite the same. So I’ll just show you some of the more interesting ones.

(more…)

I have actually typed the same title for this post three times already. Today is our second day in Bangkok proper and we spent most of it in the ruins of Ayutthaya. Chun Wee will be writing about today while I will do a bit of reminiscing about the last two days.

Friday was our first day (more like night actually, since we arrived at the hotel in the evening) and things did not go as planned right from the moment we stepped out of the taxi at the Khao San Road area. The hotel that we had reserved was only able to release the room to us tomorrow (we have arrived in Bangkok earlier than planned) and hence we are once again caught stranded in an unfamiliar place without a place to stay. The crucial difference between that first night in Sukhothai and our first night in Bangkok was that we were at the place earlier in Bangkok, and hence finding another hotel was a relatively easy task. Upon checking in for the night, we decided to loiter around the neighbourhood in order to get acquainted with the area.

Khao San Road is, to put it mildly, a crazy place overflowing with glaring lights and gaudy colours, a kaleidoscopic, claustrophic mishmash of rows and rows of shops and street stalls hawking a whole array of merchandise and services from imitation shirts and Bob Marley paraphenalia to trips for “tiger shows” and used books. Surprisingly (at least to the uninitiated like us), this place is flooded with Caucasians, most of them probably traveling on a shoestring budget, and at night, many if not most of them flock to the watering holes along the road, lounging on seats drinking beer with Thai beer ladies tending to their needs in their short skirts and figure-hugging blouses. We walked along the narrow streets and alleys for quite some time, absorbing the sights and getting used to the spirit of the area.

The next day was our first full day in Bangkok. First thing in the morning we checked out of our hotel and walked down the street to the hotel that has our reservation. After that we took a cab to the Chatuchack Weekend Market.

As usual, things did not quite went as well as we might have expected it to go. As our taxi tried to manoveure its way to the kerb of the road, the taxi just beside us tried to go the opposite direction as it has just dropped off a passenger. Our taxi went left while the other taxi went right and the other taxi’s bumper kissed the front passenger seat door, where Chun Wee happened to be sitting at. In the end Chun Wee had to squeeze his way out of the taxi and we quickly paid our fare before the drivers met and confronted each other.

If Khao San Road was packed, the Chatuchack Weekend Market was much worst. Our first instinct was to locate a map, and when we did we tried to find where we were and even took pictures of the map with our cameras. That did not help much since the moment we starting exploring the market, we got lost almost immediately. We decided to just randomly walk around and find the stuff we wanted to buy.

The first impression I got of the market was the oppressive heat. The strong sunlight made browsing the countless stalls a thoroughly sweaty affair. The simmering heat and narrow, cramped walkways, coupled with the throngs of people squeezing past each other combined to create an extremely claustrophic environment. Not that we cared, because once we got our momentum going, we were focused on finding the bargains and stuff we wanted and soon got used to the heat. We broke for lunch at a shop serving rice with braised pork trotters and noodle soup where the boss actually speaks Hokkien. We returned to our hotel at early evening with our wallets much lightened and our backpacks filled with purchases.

Tomorrow we will be going to the historical area of Bangkok, namely the wats in the Ko Rattanakosin area. It will probably be another great day for phototaking but I think the underlying consensus is that we have gotten a bit sick of taking photos of wats, after visiting Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Speaking of which, I have to charge my camera batteries. Hopefully we will post again tomorrow.

Its day 2 of our adventure and its been quite eventful so far. As the administrator of the blog, IT savviest person of the group and the only member of the group who possesses the means to upload the photos we took onto this blog, the heavy responsibility of presenting our adventures in a multimedia format thus falls upon my shoulders. i believe Chun Wee and Elgin will tell our story through prose so I’ll leave it to them to describe our story in detail. I’ll present it through photos.

 DAY 1 - GETTING THERE

Our flight was at 1100h. Nothing much to report here. Zihao came to send us off. Other than that, a really uneventful start to our holiday/trip/history lesson/shopping spree. We touched down at about 1330h (Singapore Time). Note: From now onwards, all times will be GMT +7 (Bangkok time).

We touched down at the new airport near Bangkok, the Suvar—–(can’tremember its name). It bloody far from the main part of Bangkok city. If memory serves me, its supposed to be part of the former Thai PM, Thaksin’s, centrepiece for his “Aeropolis”. The idea was to create a thriving city built around and to support a MEGA airport. We did see evidence of contruction while cabbing away from the airport but nothing spectacular. Mostly vast expanses of undeveloped land. I wonder whats gonna happen to the place now that Thaksin’s been deposed.

 To cut a long story short, we took a cab to Mo Chit Bus Terminal. With the help of helpful people, we got tickets for an 8 hour long bus ride to the northern province of Sukhothai - also the first capital of Thailand. We set off at 1600h (Thai time now) and arrived at 2300h. The shuttle bus that took me to camp was probably more comfortable than the bus. We had seats near the toilet so it reeked for a while.

You can’t really see it in this photo, but this was a self-taken shot of the three of us riding in the back of a pickup. You’re probably wondering: Why are those three clowns in the back of a pickup and smiling so happily in the wee hours of the night, when we should have been totally tired, confused and lost after an interminable 7 hour long bus ride that left us somewhere in the middle of a foreign town, far off from the bus terminal where we expected to have alighted at.

This is because, we met 2 extremely kind and helpful and benefactors. May they lead long lives and be blessed forever. If I in charge of issuing karma points, I would most certainly without a doubt issue them with enough points to ensure they live well for the next ten thousand years. Basically, they saw us poor lost souls, offered us a lift to the guest house at which we planned to stay and when we found out that it was full, fetched us around to various other guesthouses, all at 11pm+, a time when all deserve to be at home resting and enjoying the company of their family. I think Elgin and Chun Wee will say a bit more about them so I’ll just leave it to them to spread the word of their kind deeds.

DAY 2 - EXPLORING THE OLD CITY

We woke at 0800h. While we were preparing our stuff for the day and walking in and out of our little room, Elgin unknowingly let a cat into the room. It had sneaked into the main corridor when I opened the door to our little house and lurked around waiting for an opportunity to get into the room and enjoy the comforts of our bed. Anyway, Elgin picked it up with the blanket and we chased it out. We have not seen it since.

This is us posing for a group photo in front of one of the ruins of the ancient Thai capital of Sukhothai. Exploring the ruins was our first activity of the day. This involved MUCH walking. Some of the ruins were rather plain and uninteresting, while other more awe-inspiring figures and towering edifices commanded and demanded our attention, which we lavished upon them with our photographs. We walked several kilometres under a scorching sun to see most of the historical sites. Thanks to Elgin’s advice to be attired appropriately when viewing religious sites, we were all wearing trousers. Never again. Other than being dressed in something comfortable and appropriate for the prevailing weather, I would also advise would-be explorers of the Sukhothai old city to know how to ride a bicycle so that you can rent one and bike around. (only 20 baht for the day and you get to avoid our hours of untold suffering trekking in the sun) Fortunately, the entire area wasn’t too large. I estimate that we covered an area of about 4 square kilometres in all. But the weather, landscape and general sense of desolation reminded me Tekong.

Herds of cattle roam the area, leaving trails of excreta behind to mark their path.

The name of the wat(temple) where I took this photo eludes me. Indeed, the names of all the wats that we visited elude me. Anyway, this was really impressive. This particular figure was 15m tall and enclosed in an imposing looking shrine structure. Apparently, this shrine was where Sukhothai incription No. 1 was found. This stone tablet contained some of the earliest recorded histories of the Sukhothai civilisation and Thai culture.

More ruins… Impressive, you’d agree.

This is a close-up of a ruin. Most of the ruins are made of this particular material. Its known as “stucco” and is apparently made from limestone. Secondary school geography teaches us that deterioration of rock structures in situ is known as weathering. (Erosion is when the deterioration involves movement of the rock eg. in avalanches). The uneven distribution of the weathering is evidence that the material is actually a mixture of various types of sediments and minerals. They weather at different rates because of their different hardness/density/resistance, hence the uneven weathering. Heng Tang Tang be proud of me! I have not forgotten your teachings!

More pictures…

And more…

These were just a selection of the photos that we took. Very, very grand and magnificent. A very productive and enriching morning indeed. After lunch, we went to the nearby musuem to learn more about the history of Sukhothai and to look at more historical relics and artefacts.

This is Chun Wee and myself riding on a rickety open air bus. Elgin took the photo. A good number of buses ply the route between the bus terminal near the Sukhothai new town and the old city. I estimate that one leaves/comes by every 10 minutes. The fee per passenger is 20 baht, regardless of where one drops off. These buses do not only serve tourists wishing to travel from the bus terminal to the old city but also pick locals up. Anywhere along the route, anyone can flag down the bus, hop on and signal to the driver when they wish to be dropped off, paying 20 baht to the driver upon alighting. Bus stops do not exist. Its a remarkably efficient system.

We got off at the bus terminal, which was amazingly near our guesthouse (1 min walk) and went back to the room for a well-deserved rest before venturing out in the evening for dinner. This is our room(air-conditioned). As you can see, there are 2 beds side by side. The three of us sleep across the beds.

Ah, I forgot to format this photograph. This is our “house”. inside it are 2 rooms and 1 toilet. The three of us share 1 room, the other is unoccupied. So we effectively have the whole structure to ourselves for 2 days (400 baht per day). A very good deal. As you can see, when the curtains are drawn back, there is totally no privacy. Anyone can look in. And the guesthouse happens to be in the middle of a village. Opposite us are locals’ homes. Its a very open concept. The place is laid back and quite idyllic. Nice stuff.

 Thats all for my post. I understand that its a bit choppy and broken up. I hope Elgin and Chun Wee have filled in the blanks. Its been pretty fun so far, and Thailand has been kind to us. May it stay this way.