Bangkok, Land of Smiles (Part IV)

Day 4
After that whole taxi drama, we took a nice shower and then dress up for another nightout. This time, we went to Asiatique The Riverfront. Apparently it's the new "IN" place now in Bangkok and it's a MUST VISIT tourists' spot. Initially, I thought it's just another shopping place such as Platinum mall, but it's not. It's an outdoor area with food, shops for shopping and entertainments.

There's two ways you can get there: 
1, by boat across the Chao Phraya River. 
2, by taxi.

First thing to do when we got there, EAT. So, we looked at the directory and there's a whole list of restaurants ranging from Thailand food to Western and etc. After staring for 5 minutes, we decided to roam around and look at the menus instead. 

We settled down at this restaurant, Yum Saap. There was already a waiting line when we entered and while waiting, we screened through the menu to hunt for a dish each. Since it's our last night in Bangkok, we decided to go all out. EVERYTHING SPICY and FAMOUS. As quoted by my friend, "My butthole will burn during toilet visits". Well, it's our last night here, why not? So...

Tom yam, green curry, pineapple fried rice, padthai, all Thai, you name it.

We ordered 7 dishes for 4 people, it's crazy. We all left with bloated tummies pregnant with food.

My review of this place:

Food: 4.5 / 5

Ambience: 4 / 5
Service: 4 / 5
Price: Reasonable

After all that food, we went around for a little shopping. I absolutely love this place! Decided to visit there again if I were to go Bangkok again someday.

Reasons to visit?

1. It's BEAUTIFUL

2. A lot of eating places

3. A bunchful of unique things can be found / to buy

4. I just love this place

Found this cute little sheep made of soap, milky flavor.

Sheeps FTW~ ❤

Why am I the photographer? :(

We even went for a 4D movie. Didn't know which one was good and we girls didn't want horror stuff except for the boyfie, so we ask the person to recommend the most adventurous one. It was very short, around 7 minutes or so? I wouldn't recommend it as I didn't really feel much thrill, all I did was laughing non-stop at my friends because they were screaming non-stop. Good tummy exercise though.

Day 5
Being girls, three of us woke up super early again to go to the Pratunam morning market for one last bargain hunt. Left the boyfie sleeping at the hotel since he couldn't do much shopping as mostly are girls' stuff. Later that morning, after done packing and checking out, we hit Khao San Road where Hangover 2 was filmed. Apparently it's very happening in the evening and night but we didn't have the time.

There's not much shopping as most of the stuff are repetitive from store to store and things are quite pricey. Only bought 2 tops and a dress for me girlfriend. The fruit juices were good though for the price you pay.

End of the day, my shopping stash?

All of the above plus the other small things like my shoes and accessories. Consider okay right? Actually I think I should have shop more. *greedy me*

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All in all, it was fun visiting both Krabi and Bangkok. 

A whole new experience visiting with friends and without a tour guide. The last I visited was years ago.

Hope you all had fun reading this! 

Much loves, xoxo.

Bye-bye Bangkok, till we meet again (:

Scary Taxi Drivers in Bangkok!

Now that I've got your attention, I'll post about the famous Safari World in Bangkok! Worry not, I'll still talk about the scary taxi driver experience later, it happened right after our trip to Safari World. 

So, they have two parts in the Safari World, one, the Safari Park where you'll be caged in the bus and go for a ride while the animals roam in the wild. And two, the Marine Park which consists of all the animal shows and exhibitions. 

We only bought tickets to the Marine Park as that's where all the excitements are and we didn't want to waste extra money for the 30-minutes ride. Furthermore, with all the animal shows in-line, it'll take us a whole day to see everything. 

I couldn't resist their adorableness (:

1st show on the list, the Orang Utan show

Then there were the sea lion show, bird show, dolphin show, and many more. I didn't take a lot of photos as I was trying to enjoy the shows instead of watching from behind the camera. I did took a few videos and tried to upload them but I don't know why I'm having error uploading them :(

(I will post them up in my Youtube channel once I compile them)

Best part, they have a POLAR BEAR! 
When I saw it, I turned to my boyfriend and said,"Look, they have you here. How sweet!". This is because I always teased him of being a polar bear (he'll melt in hot weather, even the slightest heat).

 

One thing that I missed out was the walrus. They're only shown to the public till 4pm and by the time we got to that area, it was already 4 something :(

Before leaving, we went to the "Giraffe Feeding Terrace" to feed some 

hungry-tongue-sticking-out-for-food awkwardly tall cuties.

A bucket of bananas for 50THB if not mistaken.

I want one as a pet

Something at the corner caught my eyes, it was a coin machine. 

This is how is works:

1. You put the amount of coins needed to operate the machine.

(this includes the coin needed to be flatten)

2. Choose the pattern that you fancy.

3. Wait for a minute and tadaaaa! You'll have your lovely souvenir ❤

(It cost ONLY 30THB)

I really love these machines as it can produce a one-of-a-kind souvenir that could last you forever instead of a common keychain or postcards.

I gotten one too while in Singapore from The Flyer (:

So, after all the animal loving moments and a lot of sweat dripping from the extremely hot weather, we went to grab a taxi to head back to our hotel.
*TIP: It is hard to get a decent taxi there that uses meter as the place is pretty secluded and they'll take the advantage to charge you a fixed rate which is totally overpriced.

This is where the taxi drama begins...

After asking several taxis, we finally found one which agrees to use the meter. So, we quickly hop onto the taxi to escape from the heat. Half way through the journey, the taxi driver said something like,"I'll have to charge you an extra 50THB because I waited at the entrance for customers".
(We weren't sure what was it exactly because he was speaking in a very broken English and uses a lot of Thai words but it was something along that line.)

We couldn't really catch what he was trying to say so we just told him that we don't understand and did not agree to it. When I realised he wanted to charge an extra 50THB onto our metered rate, my friends and I agreed not to give him any extra other than the rate showed by the meter. It's not that we were being unreasonable, it's because..

1. He agreed to use the meter before we got up into the car.

2. Why would you suddenly charge an extra amount after driving us half way? 

I mean we would gladly pay that amount if it was agreed by both parties before we got into the car, not AFTER. It felt more like we were cheated off our money rather than paying for what we "supposed" to.

So, we didn't want to pay him the extra when we arrived at the hotel and he demanded for it. My boyfriend being the man confronted him nicely and asked why is he charging us an extra only after we gotten into his car and what does it gotta do with us that he was waiting at the entrance for customers. Isn't that what taxi drivers do? Wait for customers to have a ride. He couldn't answer us yet he was demanding for the extra cash again and again. We got off the car and he threaten us that he'll wait outside of our hotel until we pay that extra 50THB. We didn't bother and went into the hotel lobby. After a whole 10minutes, he left but he complaint to the bell boy which then told the receptionist. We told our side of the story and his advice was..

"Just be careful of the taxi drivers, not the metered taxis".

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Will be posting about the lovely night at Asiatique The Riverfront in the next post.
Bonne nuit! 


Much loves, xoxo.

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

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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.

I'm back (:

Hi hi hi hi hi to all of you! 

I know I've been MIA for quite a while because I was on a weekaway to the Land of Smiles, Thailand! It was SUPER DUPER AWESOME, cannot wait to blog all about it. I actually landed back here on Tuesday midnight but was too occupied with my luggage unpacking activities and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too exhausted to sit in front of my laptop and blog. Another reason that was because most of the photos taken are EVERYWHERE. In my camera, my phone, my gf's phone and the boyfriend's phone.

So, we went to two places in Thailand, first to Krabi which was known to have beautiful islands and a must visit in Thailand then we flied to Bangkok, the city for party and shopping! When I said city for shopping, that's not exaggerating it, it's TRUE! Before heading there, I did my research on both places like how I do for the rest of my tours as we are travelling by our own, without any tour guides and I would say travelling by your own is awesome as you will get to actually explore the destination by your own, venture around and getting to know people, getting lost on your own adventure. I saw many many many photos from other bloggers showing their shopping hauls which are like tons and tons of clothes and yea, they are NOT EXAGGERATING alright. There are quite a few travel tips that I would like to share regarding my trip there but I would blog about it in my next few posts along with my updates on the trip. Definitely can't wait to share it all (: 

For now, I will need some facial (the air in Bangkok is pretty polluted *sad face*). 

Till then, good nights! ❤