Bangkok, Land of Smiles (Part II)

Continuation from Part I ~ ~

Day 3
According to our itinerary, we have Wat Arun, Grand Palace, Wat Pho and few other temples to visit before heading off to Chatuchak weekend market. But thanks to the alcohol from the night before, everyone got up later than planned, so we only visited the Wat Arun and Grand Palace. Being the typical tourist, we took the long-tailed boat to the temples.

* TIP : There's two piers for the boats. One would be the private tour (especially to earn tourist's $$) and another would be the one which locals use (cheaper rate). Taxi drivers might bring you straight to the private tour pier.

Very touristy pose

Look at the beauty

You'll need to purchase ticket to enter which would cost 50THB and of course you'll have to dress politely (no shorts, slippers and etc). The arts on the building are fantastic and you have to climb the stairs to the top, the view is amazing up there overlooking the Chao Phraya river and the surrounding buildings. (1st photo)

 

We moved on to Chatuchak's weekend market after that (: 

The market was filled with variety of things. There were food, clothes, bags, shoes, phone accessories, more food and many many more. IT IS HUGE ! It was fun shopping there as you have many choices and you can eat while you shop. Two things that I missed most were the needle mushrooms wrapped in grilled bacon and the coconut ice-cream with your choice of toppings! They'll serve you one cup of coconut juice for each ice-cream you get, how cool is that? Awesome refreshment for the hot sunny day.

We didn't take much pictures there as all were busy filling their tummies.

Coconut ice-cream (:

Handmade and it's only 100THB ❤

Each pair for only 150THB

Chatuchak's weekend market was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too big for us to conquer all stalls in a few hours. I think we only managed to cover a quarter of it or less. I wish we had more time to shop there :(

Headed back to the hotel to wash up and get ready for the River Cruise dinner on the Chao Phraya River. We bought this deal from Groupon for 4 and it cost us about RM 150 per person and transport is included as we are staying in Pratunam area. 

We gotten the Chao Phraya Princess 4 

The cruises have the upper deck and also lower deck. The upper one is totally opened-air as the bottom one is air-conditioned. I would suggest to take the upper deck seats as you can enjoy the beautiful view together with the performance while enjoying the food. 

Romantic dinner setting ❤

The look for the night ❤

According to the menu, we'll be served international buffet. I was pretty looking forward to it as I expect it to be good since we did pay quite an amount for it but it was such a disappointment. Yes, they do have many choices but the tastes were TOTALLY OFF for most dishes. Edible but not up to the expected standard.

One checkers and one dots ❤

My verdict for this?

Food : Average

Service: Good

Facilities: Lovely

Worth the money? : Okay for first-timers

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Well, I guess that's it for this post. I'll be posting on The Asiatique Riverfront and Safari World in my next post, stay tuned! Bonne nuit! ❤

Much loves, xoxo.

Bangkok, Land of Smiles (Part I)

Yay, FINALLY I have some time to actually sit down and get into the blogging mood.

Been so busy recently with my FYP (final year project) that I can't even have proper meals or rest 

( the boyfriend nags all the time on this but I know he cares, I'm lucky ❤ ).

Soooooooooooooooooooo..

Bangkok; The Land of Smiles, party city, lots of ladyboys 

and A HELL LOT of CHEAP SHOPPING!

Before I begin on my journey, few tips to share:
1. ALWAYS insist on metered taxi(s)
2. It's easier to shop with a backpack
3. Bargain, bargain, bargain!
4. Do your very own research online on the places you want to visit
(I'll relate all these to my very own experience below)

Day 1

We spent half of the day in Krabi and got to Bangkok around late evening. Landed at the Don Mueang International Airport because we took Air Asia and there's no BTS that's linked to it, so we took a taxi. The traffic congestion is REAL BAD during peak hours. 

After almost 2 hours, finally we got to our hotel, Chang Siam Inn. It's a boutique hotel, located very near to Pratunam Market and Platinum Mall (walking distance). 

Price: Affordable
Cleanliness: Good
Staffs: Quite helpful
Recommended: Yes

We went to Chinatown for dinner and I would say there's shark-fins, seafood, desserts and pomegranate EVERYWHERE. There's not much shopping can be done though as most of the shops were closing and the food are just okay. The only good bargain that we gotten was some stuffs from Watsons; the L'oreal's conditioner and Sunplay's sun lotion were really cheap.

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Day 2

Got up real early as we planned to hit Pratunam's morning market as I've read online that we can get REAL CHEAP SHOPPING there (I always do my research before my vacations). We got down to the hotel's lobby at around 6am and asked them for direction. They were all surprised that we are heading to the market that early, the only response we gotten was "the market doesn't open till 10am, there's nothing this early". After much hesitations, we thought why not go there and check it out? If there's no market, we'll come back for a nap.

After 15 minutes' walk, JACKPOT. Says who there's no Pratunam morning market? Seems like the locals know little about this place (tip #4). If I could only describe this market in one word, I'll choose HEAVEN! To be specific, it's a SHOPPING HEAVEN for GIRLS. Although it's not really that big, you will still be spoil by choices and the prices are REALLY CHEAP but with the condition that you must purchase wholesale (3 pcs and above). That wasn't really a problem as I had two girlfriends with me. 

Pratunam Morning Market

Before we leave to the market, there's locals whom were kind enough to remind us to carry our bags in front instead of sideways as there are many cases which the thief would just slice open your bag without you knowing. This is where tip #2 comes handy, the backpack! And true enough, about 10minutes into our shopping hunt, one lady was complaining to her husband about her bag being cut open at the side and she was missing some of her stuff. From that point onward, we became more paranoid and hold them bags closely as though we were pregnant women. We bought a whole lots of stuff from that market. One big tip, the market closes at around 8-8.30am, so you might want to sacrifice your sleep.

As for Platinum Mall, there are lot of choices too (floors and floors) for girls' stuff mainly but there are also men's stuff. If you want to compare, it's still not as cheap as the ones from the morning market but it's still okay. Then, we went to the infamous Terminal 21 to look see as I heard that the mall is made up of several themes. At the entrance, we had to went through security checkpoints like those in airports with a security watching you. The thing beeped and my friends and I actually stopped without knowing what to do while the security guy just smiled. After walking into the mall, then I realized that it was just part of the "Airport" theme (we were jakuns, I know). 

Notice the security checkpoint?

Just like an airport

This one really captured my interest

The only thing that we done there was have lunch, snapped some pictures around and visited every floor's washroom as all of them has different theme each. My favorites were the Paris and Greece ones, super classy. 

With the trusty travel partner

I'm a kitty ❤

We hit Siam Paragon next as my friend told me that it's a MUST to watch a movie while you are in Thailand as they have some cultural thing. Sadly, we didn't get the chance to experience it as the movies' timing were all off from our schedule. So, I am still curious about the cultural thing that he was talking about. We went back to the hotel to wash up and have a little rest before heading out for dinner. The next pit-stop after dinner was the Lebua Skybar @ State Tower. Instantly became well-known after the movie "Hangover2", this place is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overcrowded but the drinks were good and the view from above was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! 

The dining area

Bangkok at night ❤

Their price for a cocktail would be around 550thb (without tax), and I ordered the "Hangovertini" which was from the movie. It was good, worth the cash and I love the wind up there. But if you want a quiet place to chill and don't wish to be squeezed in a sea of humans, I would not recommend this skybar.

Next on the list is to party somewhere (Mr Boyfriend's to-do-list). Most of the websites or blogs would recommend going to RCA where most of the happening clubs are there but we chosen somewhere different. 

Grease Club

They have 4 floors but only the third floor was the real deal and on the 4th floor, you can have shisha apparently. The space was pretty small and they don't really have a dance floor but they do have a LED ceiling which was pretty cool comparing to the ones back in KL and they have really nice bartenders. Sharing a video below recorded while we were partying. If you followed me on Instagram, you would have seen this before. 

We left at around 1am plus, close to 2 and went back a little high but it was all good. Partied like a rockstar in Thailand, checked!

*One more tip, all clubs are only allowed to open until 2am. Apparently if you are still there after 2, the authorities could actually arrest you. We got to know this from our taxi driver while on the way back (thank God we left early as the club opens till 4am but we were all too exhausted to stay).

I guess I'll just blog till here for now. So, day 3, 4 & 5 will be up in the next post. 

At the mean time, hope you guys enjoy reading this. (:

Much loves, xoxo.

Paradise on Earth, Krabi

On the beach of Koh Phi Phi (:

Hi there! Welcome to the heaven on earth! ❤

I heard from a lot of people that Krabi is a-must-visit in Thailand for its beautiful beaches and 

a whole lot of sun tanning. 

As promised, here's my post about my recent weekaway at Thailand last August. I know it took me a while to blog about it but I had been occupied with university stuffs and was waiting for the remaining photos from my friends. So, we've been to two places in Thailand, Krabi and Bangkok. Since our first stop was Krabi, I'll do a post on it first and then I'll do another on Bangkok! (:

There are a few things that I have learnt of Krabi island: 

1. You can't visit the islands on your own, best you could do is hire a private boat 

but will still be accompanied by a tour guide.

2. Beautiful beaches? You have to take tours around to visit them but it's TOTALLY WORTH IT!

3. Lunch buffet provided by the tour agencies are yummy.

4. Every island is very commercialized but well taken care of and SUPER BEAUTIFUL.

5. You will need A LOT of SUNSCREEN to avoid sunburn.

After we landed, we grabbed a taxi to our hotel but stopped at a tour agency to purchase some tours while we are there. Day 1, we will be snorkeling and doing some kayaking around the Hong Islands. 2nd day, city tour and elephant trekking and 3rd day, snorkeling and island hopping around Koh Phi Phi (MUST visit). It was crazy on the first day as after we have arrived at the resort, we had only 5 minutes to get changed while the van was waiting for us. I'll let the pictures do justice on how beautiful the islands are.

The pier on Ao Nang Beach

Paradise Island

Don't know which babe is he checking out.

Crystal clear H2O

I think I've gained some arm muscles after all that kayaking.

I don't want to go home!

A bit of vain moments with the boyfie ❤

The islands were all so beautiful that I don't want to go home. I don't mind the sun tanning if I could just stay there like FOREVER, that's how amazing they are. For the city tour, we visited a few places such as the hot spring, emerald pool, Tiger Cave and the elephant trekking. We didn't get the chance to soak in the hot spring as it was raining slighty, the water wasn't that warm and we had only 30minutes but the Emerald Pool was awesome. Super, super, super clear water! And it's au naturale, how awesome is that?

My trusty travel partner (:

After all that mesmerizing water moments, we went to the Tiger Cave. Apparently the view is amazing up there, so we decided to picked up the challenge to get up there. 1237 steps to the top, seems easy isn't it?

After 200+ steps, we were like "okay lah, seems not bad lah but the steps are a little steep" but after 400+ steps, I just want to jump down from the cliff. The steps were steep and high at the same time, it was some badass workout alright. I was panting away like nobody's business while dragging my almost dying body up step by step like a snail. It was a torture! But I seen a lot of them did not give up and those that were coming down said that it'll be all worth once you reach the top. So, I continued my sadistic journey.

Once I reached the top of it, I realised what they said were true.. 

The view was amazing!

On the top of Tiger Cave

But what I looked forward most was the elephant trekking. 

The lake where they elephants take their bath

It was a great experience but that would be my last ride on an elephant because we actually seen one of the elephant caretakers whipped the elephant in front of us because the elephant did not want to move. It was so cruel that the girl that was riding on it shouted "NOOOOO!" loudly. It was really a sad scene. *sigh* So, I've decided no more elephant rides.

And after all those activities, it's always good to get back to our resort. In fact, I love the place we stayed in. The service was good, the place was quiet and chilly, and there were 3 little cute dogs. They have 3 pools, although small but we could have it all to ourselves as there weren't many guests there. I would go back to the resort if I ever visit Krabi again as it was worth the price we paid, affordable, clean and spacious.. Maleedee Bay Resort.

My view from the balcony

And of course we girls would love some massage and self-pampering time before we hit Bangkok so on our last night in Krabi, we went for a little massage and some mani pedi after a good dinner. Did I mention that pasta, spaghetti, wine, cocktails and beer are DIRT CHEAP in Krabi? 189thb for any pizza or spaghetti, 90thb for a glass of wine and 100thb for a glass of cocktail. It was so crazily cheap that we just gulped down alcohols for every dinner.

200thb for the manicure and 150thb for the pedicure

So, that sort of sums up my experience in Krabi. The images of the beautiful islands and the relaxing ambiance there are still strongly lingering in my mind, makes me want to go back there badly. Maybe some time in the future I would go back there. Some time, some day..

Much loves, xoxo.

Peace out (;