Last October, I went to Bangkok on an assignment for a week. The night before the trip (Saturday), I was at Poppy with my colleagues and the next day, I was having abit of hangover until I almost forgot to bring along my Thai currencies to the airport. I quickly settled down in the plane and plan to have a long sleep since I was high on alcohol but my colleague was so excited when the air stewardess served us wine on board.
The inside view of Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Because of the laziness in updating my blog, I forgot the chronological events that took place in Bangkok so I will just write whatever I think of based on the pictures that I uploaded.
One of the meals that I really like in Bangkok is the pork knuckle rice. This dish taste abit like our very own Bak Kut Teh. Make sure you give this a try when you are in Bangkok. Widely available everywhere.
Yummy! In Mandarin, they call it Chu Jiao Fan.
Prior making this trip, my colleagues have been telling me how lucky I am to be selected for this assignment and they even told me how nice and expensive Bangkok Boutique Hotel is. This hotel is located near the Petchaburi station and a 5 minutes walking distance to my client's office.
The TV which provided me Amazing Race while I'm preparing to go for work.
Monday morning, we were having complimentary breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and all I saw was colourful cabs stuck in traffic jam, working adults rushing to work and teenagers rushing to the nearby university while they saw two morons slowly enjoying their breakfast and reading newspaper.
Guess what's our reaction when we stepped out of the hotel? We just stood still and stared at each other. The place where we were staying is like Jalan Sultan Ismail where there are hotels, restaurants and offices. What we saw was a sort of like morning market. Everyone is buying breakfast from the stalls and guess what, some stalls even sell children's cloths, toys etc.
RM0.50 per piece.
There are also a number of stalls selling all kinds of coffee and they even have their own coffee machine to blend the coffee beans. Impressive?! If its in Malaysia, I think the DBKL will surely not confiscate the coffee machine and the stall.
During lunch time, I had the same thing again.
Pork Knuckle Rice!
Haha..I cant remember if this is chicken or pork noodle.
Almost everyday after work, we would stop by this stall and takeaway their fried oyster. Only cost RM 2.50 to RM 3.00 per plate.
Not so oily and taste damn good.
Besides frying oyster, they also serve Pad Thai.
Not to forget, another Must-Have-Snack. A stick of BBQ pork or chicken meat (RM 0.50/pc)
One thing about Thailand, you can easily find mini stalls selling BBQ meat along the road which serves spicy sauce. Not to worry about the possibility of starving at night in Thailand.
One of the weekdays, my manager came to review our work and we had to meet her at the Suvarnabhumi Airport. We had our lunch at the airport's food court centre which is located at the ground floor. Make sure you try this
Spicy pork ribs noodle.
At night, we took a 15 minutes walk from our hotel to the Sukhumvit Station (BTS Line) to the Siam Station, the famous shopping district where you'll drown yourself with shopping bags from the shops in Siam Paragon, Siam Centre, Siam Square, MBK Centre and etc. Upon reaching, we found ourself trapped in the crowd.
Thanks to the ELLE Fashion Week 2007
We had seafood dinner nearby some restaurtants and were too busy eating to snap some pictures. The only picture I have is this
Mango sticky rice!
During dinner, it was very noisy due to the heavy traffic and along came, this blind man and small kid. The kid sang with a very sad voice and it works, Bahts came pouring in from the foreigners.
Part time job for the kid as he is still in his school uniform.
I heard from my colleague that even Hong Kong stars also visit this place to pray.
Aquarium
One of the nights, I took a train from the Petchaburi station to the Lumphini Station to this famoust night bazaar. If you don't have the time to visit the Chatuchak weekend market, do visit this Suam-Lum Night Bazaar. Click here for more info.
Need me to say anymore?
The cheaper range of food can be found here, just right outside the Lumphini station.
Stephen picks one, Uncle weighs, Stephen pays, Uncle cuts and Stephen eats.
Van in Bank or Bank in Van?
Small shops in the SL(Stephen Lee Suan-Lum) Night Bazaar.
The SLNB also have restaurants and food court where you can have find almost any famous Thai food under a roof. Besides that, you will be entertained with the live performances from local singers and bands. The SLNB is open from 3pm to midnight. Worth spending an evening there.
Condom vending machine in the public toilet.
On Friday afternoon, we went over to Siam Central World which is also nearby Siam Paragon for my colleague's last minute shopping orders from his cousin.
At that time, the King was ill and those white star shaped notes are wishes from the public praying for His Majesty's health.
Balloon car
Balloon gorilla
This is the reason why we ended up in Central World Plaza. He is ordered to buy bags from NaRaYa which have 50 over branches both locally and internationally at countries like Turkey, France, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Guam (USA) and Saudi Arabia.
By the way, it's illegal to take pictures of the NaRaYa outlet.
You can find bags, children's products, kitchen's products etc. Click on NaRaYa for more info.
The 4 faces of Buddha statue.
Hainan chicken rice for lunch. I forgot the location but if you bring me along to Bangkok, I will bring you here. Famous and delicious.
This place is called the Pratunam Market where you can find souvenirs, clothings at retail prices. And also the cheapest massage centers are located on the left hand side of the photo.
One of the mode of transport in Bangkok is the usage of boats. We took the Khlong Saen Saep Express Boat at the Pratu Nam Pier to the Klong Tan Pier. Can you imagine these boats carry about 60,000 passengers a day? Its the cheapest mode of transport in Bangkok because my fare back to the river near my hotel cost me only about RM1.00 which is only like 10 Baht.
When the boat arrives, the crowd force themselves onto the boad, squeezing in to find for a place to sit or stand. It's quite difficult to leave as you need to step on the bench. So girls, please don't wear skirts, especially mini-skirts if you want to be adventurous and take the boat. Oh ya, make sure you bring along something so that you can cover yourself in case another boat comes from the opposite direction because you can taste the flavour of Bangkok dirty river. Don't worry, as the boat leaves the pier, they will pull up the canvas to protect passengers from getting wet.
That night we had dinner at the Oishi Buffet Restaurant owned by the Oishi Group Public Company Limited. They serve a wide range of Japanese and Chinese Seafood.
After dinner, we visited the famous night clubs in Bangkok. Just get to Ratchadaphisek Station and you will find all the night clubs there. We did not enter any of these clubs because we were wearing shorts that time. Just to check out the girls location only-mah!
Our flight is scheduled on Saturday around 4pm, therefore we still have time to visit the famous Chatuchak weekend market which you make a stop at the Chatuchak Park Station. The shops are also as small as those that you can find at the SLNB but this market receives about 200,000 to 300,000 visitors each day.
Different kind of Ice Creams.
Different kind of flowers.
Before we leave Bangkok, it will be so sinful if we let go the chance of trying the McDonald's Pork Burger. Hehehe..
After our lunch, we quickly rushed back to the hotel because we requested the hotel to change our check out time to 2pm. Managed to reach the Suvarnabhumi Airport on time so its time to explore the airport.
And we found this note....
Damn @#$%^&!!!
