The weather these few days reminds me of a Peanuts strip:
(Linus and Lucy are under an umbrella. It looks like they've been there awhile.)
Lucy: You think this is a lot of rain? Rachel Carson says when the oceans were being formed, it rained day and night for centuries.
Linus: It must have been very difficult to plan picnics!
(Linus and Lucy are under an umbrella. It looks like they've been there awhile.)
Lucy: You think this is a lot of rain? Rachel Carson says when the oceans were being formed, it rained day and night for centuries.
Linus: It must have been very difficult to plan picnics!
(As i didn't take many pictures during the trip, i would have to use words to describe what i saw...)
On Saturday (7-Jan) morning, 贝 and i left for Changi Airport at around 8am. The traffic was smooth at 2nd Link and after we had checked in and cleared the immigration counter, there was still an hour more before the boarding time. We spent the waiting time in using the free Web access at the airport and
At the departure lounge, there were three ladies talking rather loudly and i really felt like slapping them and told them to shut the f*ck up. From their Singlish conversation, i could tell that they were Singaporeans who often travelled to Bangkok for shopping. You know, those typical tai-tai's who go on overseas shopping trip and burst their husbands' credit card limit because everything is "cheap cheap cheap" to them. I really don't understand why did they have to talk so loud as if everyone was interested in their gossips.
The boarding time came and i was hoping that we would get to ride on the new Airbus that Air Asia had bought. To my disappointment, it was an old airplane, but in better condition than the one i had taken last year. There was a Thai air steward on board; he was so soft-spoken and his complexion was so fair that i think he was more feminine than i am.
During the two-hour flight, i managed to finish reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven (finally!) while 贝 tried to get some sleep. The seats were narrow and he got a stiff neck after the flight. On board the plane, we noticed that some passengers (including the three annoying tai-tai's) ordered instant cup noodles from the flight attendants. Everything sold in the air was about four times the price of that on the ground. So i really couldn't understand why anyone would wanna eat over-priced cup noodles on a flight.
The plane touched down at Bangkok International Airport half-an-hour later than scheduled. The immigration clearance took a very long time; we queued up for almost an hour, partly because of the huge number of travellers from other flights, and also because of the inefficient immigration officers who worked and chit-chatted at the same time.
Something amusing happened while we were queuing at the immigration counters. The travellers were not allowed to use trolleys at the counters area but we didn't see any obvious signage telling the travellers so. Then there was this Thai lady who dressed in operation staff uniform and went around shouting at some angmo travellers who were using the trolleys. She didn't seem to speak much English except kept shouting "no trolley, no trolley!" at the angmo, followed by some Thai sentences that none of us could understand at all. In the end those angmo returned the trolleys to her but i think she had made a bad impression for the first-time travellers.
贝's brother had been waiting at the arrival gate for a long time and by the time we exited the gate, it was already 2pm or so (Thailand time, which is one hour behind Malaysia time). He has been working in Bangkok for years and knows the place very well. He's also rather fluent in conversational Thai language so we got ourselves a very good tour guide. We had lunch at a restaurant in the airport. 贝's brother ordered some Thai dishes to go with the rice and the food was delicious.
What i noticed about the Bangkok International Airport was that it was really old. It was easy to tell from the facilities that this airport must be built decades ago. Big posters of the new Suvarnabhumi Airport could be seen in the airport, which was expected to open this year and replace the current airport as the country's aviation hub. 贝's brother brought us to look at the mock-up of Suvarnabhumi Airport; it was a huge airport with a modernistic design. I think we can expect Suvarnabhumi to join Changi and KLIA in competing to become the regional aviation hub very soon.
After lunch, we went straight to the shopping malls and started our shopping marathon. 贝's brother drove us to a mall called Central Chidlom and parked his car there. We shopped there for a while and then took the LRT to another mall called MBK Center.
The LRT in Bangkok was similar to Singapore's, except that the train had lesser railcars, arrived at shorter intervals, and with a lot lesser announcements that bugged the commuters along the journey and in the stations. The tickets were sold at ticketing machines like the ones in Singapore, and the tickets were those that inserted into a slot like the old type of tickets we had before the implementation of ezLink in Singapore.
We had Thai steamboat dinner at the famous MK Restaurant at MBK Center. According to 贝's brother, MK is a successful restaurant chain in Thailand that is listed on the stock market. The business was really good. We had to wait for a table and during the whole time we were in the restaurant, there wasn't an instance when a table was vacant -- patrons were queuing up to have meal in the restaurant. The food wasn't too bad but also not something i would shout about. The side dish, roast duck, was delicious though and the broth for the steamboat was really tasty. I think that was where their success lies; they used white turnip to boil the broth and rendered it a natural sweetness that made whatever ingredients cooked in it taste good as well.
After the dinner, we proceeded to the Suan-Lum Night Bazaar where there were 3700 shops selling all kinds of stuffs such as clothes, handicrafts, souvenirs, jewelries, antiques, etc. I was thrilled to find a shop that sold authentic Snoopy bags and wallets:
No, we didn't cover the whole area that night. Of course not. It wasn't possible at all with such vast size and our tired bodies. We had been shopping since we left the airport and the luggage was still in the car boot! So we left the night bazaar at around mid-night and headed to Leela Inn where we would be spending two nights.
Leela Inn was a very simple hotel in the town area with LRT just within walking distance. A twin room was supposed to cost 1900 Baht per night but we got it for 1000 Baht only, thanks to 贝's brother who managed to get us a discounted rate through his Thai colleague. What took me by surprise was the receptionist. He was a guy. Ok, i know this sentence is odd but ya, he was a guy, and yet he wore make up with the long eye lashes and all. Even his behaviour was totally sissyish but he was a guy alright. No boobs, no skirt but very feminine. Hmmm, i do have more to say about this but i'll leave it to tomorrow's post.
We were totally bushed and slept like a log. It was gonna be another long day ahead of us!
Labels: travel
