Pearlberries: Passport 2 Places


Walking from hotel to the nearest BTS

BTS is the skytrain in Bangkok. Besides trains are shorter than in Singapore, the facilities are equivalent to that we have here. Taking train in Bangkok is most probably the wiser choice as it saves you from the traffic jams as well as being chopped by the tuk-tuk or taxi drivers. They have quite a good Ticketing system, whereby you can purchase tickets by number of routes or just a day pass. Well, I would suggest to buy the tickets by the number of trips as the most I traveled was just 6-8 trips per day. In this case, then you can save the leftover for the next day instead of buying a new ticket. You might also want to try out the tuk-tuk, so a day ticket might not be as worthwhile. Anyway, tickets are cheap. So, don't bother too much.

Chong Nonsi, the nearest BTS from our hotel.

For safety purposes, they put a guard to make sure no one crosses the yellow line. Cross? Then you'll jump by his loud beep!

We saw this on our way to the train station. Have to admit that Thailand is filled with skilled people.

Road congestion, everywhere, anytime.

Something very special about Thailand is that although the sun shines brightly, but the air is cool. Unlike Malaysia or Singapore, the air is so stuffy.

I love to eat ice creams whenever I visited a place, especially the street type. It sorts of giving me the taste of the locals.

Vanilla topped with choc n nuts. THB 300

Camwhore time

Another skilled child performs for living

Our very first stop for shopping is Platinum Fashion Mall. From Chong Nonsi, we dropped off at Chit Lom and walked...walked...walked...for about 45 minutes before we finally reached Pratunam area which is also where Platinum Mall located. No point to take a cab cause walking is definitely faster. You know why.

Pratunam is also a well known market to get things especially clothes. As we only have limited time, so we chose Platinum Fashion Mall instead. But two of these places are just opposite each other.

After a long walk in the sun, it was good to be in the ac again. It looks exactly like Bugis street and now is larger, wider and more varieties to choose from. PFM is 6 stories in total with basement, the food court and the rest is girls' paradise. Plan at least 6 hours in this building as it opens only till 6-7 pm. I spent 5 hours browsing and some light shopping non-stop from shops to shops and by the 5th hour, i only did 3 stories!

It is rather hard to bargain for prices nowadays as most of them have adapted to wholesales. So, if you buy 2-3 pieces, can be different patterns and prices, then they will give you the wholesale price which would be ~40% cheaper. Don't hesitate to bring along a big backpack or chine-style plastic bags because you'll see a lot of people doing so. And it is safer as you can contain all your purchasing in one place too.

Trying out blueberry smoothies. Surprisingly excellent!

Night approaches, and gotta head back. This time my very first time on a tuk-tuk. It was fun at first but not for a long ride when I kept inhaling carbon monoxides.

One horrible thing happened, instead of sending us back to the hotel, the tuk-tuk driver got us to the wrong place and we all got stuck in the traffic jam. We waited for 30 minutes hoping for the traffic to clear out but it didn't so all of us decided to just walk to the nearest BTS station instead. So, we paid THB 150 for 2 tuk-tuk that brought us to the wrong place instead of THB 350 to the hotel.

Since we were taking train, so we decide to drop off at Siam station for a walk and find some street food for dinner.

Dinner 1: Sticky rice coated inside the bamboo. Fragrant rice with a little sweet taste.

Dinner 2: Pork sausage. Very juicy and tasted sour

Dinner 3: BBQ squid with very very spicy chillies.

Besides, we also ordered Pat Thai (Thai fried noodle) from a stall. It was good. Now I realise I was too hungry to take a photo of it. Having to say, don't expect too much on street food. They may be nice but one might doubt its hygiene. Why say so? Ok, this is the real reason I didn't take a photo of the noodle. They serve me a plate of Pat Thai nicely presented with average sized prawn on top. Later I realise there is a hair on the prawn. So I brought it back to the cook hoping that she would change the prawn for me. And all she did is pull the hair away from the prawn and return the prawn back to my noodle, in front of me. wtf!

A beauty outlet from Korea and things are cheap

Stalls selling shirts

To end a day, Thai massage is a must. Massage centres are all over the street and their pricing are reasonable. I did foot massage for the first night and it only cost THB 250/hr with free head and shoulder massage too!

Very powerful madame doing my feet and her boos so protruding that they occasionally rubbed my foot too

I love life!

"Sawat-dee"

Sawat-dee, means "hi" or "hello"is the most common greeting used in Thailand, even our Mr Ronald McDonald has to adapt to this culture if business must goes on. lol..
To do this, put you hands together like a lovely prayer-like gesture accompanied with a little head nodding. Do this to the people you see in Thailand and they will be very friendly in return.

Visiting Thailand with many Mr Beautiful has always been my wish and now it has granted! Booked myself with Jetstar this time with return fare of $180 (tax included) and waited eagerly for the day to come.

Yeah, ready to fly!

Limited Abs vok @ DFS, Changi Airport

Feel so good with these $$$

"Thailand flood"
While in the boarding hall, we saw this news. Worried Mei a lot but for the rest of us we managed to stay calm as everything has been booked. "We'll see how's then" is the phrase Dar-ann used.

Some more, the flight was full!

After a long 2 hrs back-aching flight, we finally arrived at Suvarnabhumi Int Airport. Very new and most part have not been painted yet.

Bird's view of Bangkok

Happy for the English translation

As a first timer to Bangkok, I pre-booked out transport from the Airport to the Hotel using hotel's service. THB 1,200 for a van with 9 seats. So, if you were in a large group, this is worth the money. But if there were just four people or less, take the cab. Although most the cab would print themselves "meter-taxi" but they still prefer calling prices.
Tips for you: 1) Go for cab that calls price (can bargain) as traffic might be heavy or they may bring you the long way just so their meter could jump more. 2) From SIA to town by cab cost less than using hotel's van surely around THB 500.

Our lovely driver with our hotel's van

This is a very pleasant place to stay in. Cost SGD 50 per room per night, B&B. Despite its distance from the skytrain, everything else is quite accessible from here. We have got day/night market, restaurants, 7-elevens, food stalls, florists and many more.


Our home for the next 2 days

Seem like we were not ready for the street food, so we headed into this ac restaurant called Siam House located just along the market close to our hotel. Anther reason also because it has got English translation on their menu.