Bangkok, Thailand Trip - Day I

Dear XXX,

I'm back from a 4D3N Bangkok trip, 14-17 Oct 2011.
Refreshing gilerrr I must say.

A supposed 5 person trip reduced to 3 at the very end.
Emil and her sis cancelled because they were worried about the flood situation in Bangkok that has been on the news for the past days, in a way, ada hikmah nyer la deorang tak ikot their mum got warded and had to go through an operation. Had they continued with the plan, they won't have fun anyway as the mind's back home.

We took the first flight to Bangkok via Tiger Airways. I am a fan of budget flights and I am proud to say it. As long as it brings me to my destination, I'm a happy girl. So sue me!

Since we had to check-in at 6am that day, I took the chance to sleepover at my parents' place.

The night before, Mister came by to Tamp to kiss me goodbye, he's currently on reservist and it just so happen that he got to book out for the night, so he made his way to come and see me. *winks*

Okay, enough of the intial stories and let's get it on....

Had a filling breakfast at MacD before checking-in. Normally I don't waste my money on-board the budget flight as the choices are limited. No kidding.
Like Tiger Airways in this case, the only available food for purchase are their instant cup noodles and drinks. They only sell rice with dish if the flight duration is more than 3 hours. So, I'd rather have a hearty meal before my flight, or tahan till we reach the ground.

We were busy taking our time that we didn't realize it was 5 mins before flight take off and it was already final call.. Kelam-kabut the three of us ran to the gate. We were the last few people to board the plane. Perangai~

The two hours flight went by in a blink of an eye, in my honest opinion it was more bearable than my daily train ride to work. I mean really, wats a two hour journey for me???!!!

Since we had some time to kill (didn't want to loiter around the hotel lobby in case the rooms weren't ready), we had a break at Dunkin' Donuts as soon as we've passed the immigrations.

The plan was to go public.. I have no intention to take cab whatsoever. We kept a lookout for the train signs to city.

keeping a lookout for the signs

Unlike the past two times when I was there... There is now a train station right at the airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link which just commence its service in 2010, This will connect to the BTS SkyTrain Sukhumvit line that brings us right to a station near our hotel (i.e. Phloen Chit Station).

It costs just 45 baht to reach from Airport to Phaya Thai station and another 20 baht to Phloen Chit station. A total of 65 baht approx SG$2.60, that is definitely a vast difference from booking a saloon car directly from hotel which cost 1200 baht, approx SG$45 when I checked via the hotel's official website later that night.

all excited...

bought out token...

tokens instead of EZlink cards~

I didn't have an itinerary planned. It was Emil who had everything written on paper. So when she cancelled, of cos I had to think of plan B. If you ask me, I prefer impromptu, and Pi-ee and Ina were both supporting enough. In fact, they trust me so much, they left it all to me. In Pi-ee's words 'SURPRISE ME'.

So it took us plus minus an hour to reach Phloen Chit station. From there, it was just a 5 mins walk to the hotel that I've booked. It's a budget but relatively new hotel, so you can be sure that the hotel rooms looks presentable. 

Recently, whenever I want to book a hotel, I have been relying on HotelAdvisor.com. That's where travelers share their experience and tips and it proved to be useful when I booked four of the hotels for my honeymoon earlier this year.

OK, back to the hotel, when I say 5 mins walk, it literally means 5 mins walk, you just gotta go down the stairs from the train station, cross a junction (start of their highway or in Singapore terms, ERP) pass a few shops, pushcarts and there it is....
LEGACY EXPRESS BANGKOK HOTEL
Don't be fooled by the outlook. It's only a 4 storey hotel.

Check-in was a breeze. No hassle, I booked via Agoda.com (my trusted hotel booking website), the reception asked for my credit card that I used to book the hotel to verify and that's it. 

We were provided with their free WIFI password when we got the room key. Bagus! Tak yah tanya, dia dah bagi.

At this point si Ina dah pergi 7-11 located just outside the hotel to find new slippers. Member pakai sandal licin. Dah tentu2 cuaca expected to be mendung, hujan, flood - dia pakai selipar licin, abih turun train station, jalan dah mcm pengantin... Slow jer, takut jatuh.
Kalau tak menyakitkan hati aku, tak sah ni pompan.... 

So lucky her, she managed to get new slippers. Pat 7-11 ada jual!! Tak sia-sia (tapi selipar jamban ar..... Hahaha..).

Fed up jer dia kena sindir. Hahaha

So yea... Here's how our superior room looked like. No complains. It looked just like how I expected it to be. 

Amenities in the room were adequate. We called housekeeping for iron, and got it within minutes. Umbrella was provided in the room. Since it's the rainy season, I consider that a plus point.

I can see that both Ina and Pi-ee were superrr excited. Nothing can bring their spirits down it seems even though it was starting to drizzle. Apa tak nyer, it's their maiden trip to the land of Siam...!!! I felt like a tour guide leading them. My previous two trips proved to be useful as I kind of knew my way around though each trip were only for a short while. So after touching up and resting for awhile, we headed down to Mahboonkrong Center (MBK) which is located just 2 BTS station away from our hotel.

Ekkk, problem ke kak pakai poncho??? Hahahahaha....

Looking super stylish in it!

Like finally..... Hahahahaha....

Lunch was at MBK level 5, Yana Restaurant. I had Green Curry with rice. Ina had Tom Yam soup with rice... Awesome good stuff! Sour-ish, spicy, just the way its suppose to be. Thai style!

We surveyed the area and it was Ina who was the first to splurge!!! Padahal yg cakap tak nak shop, dia jugak... Tukar SGD300 jer. Macam betol~ Lepas tu nampak shawl.... Jadi kegilaaan~

Jalan skit, stop.. Jalan skit. Stop... 

We had a coffee break at Stars Coffee. The milky tea was sedap gilerrr. Refreshing ar. Shiok minum. The ice-cream sorbet was finger spoon lickin good.

Pi-ee bought Nancy Chandler's Map of Bangkok. It's not like those normal boring maps. This one's interesting to look at. Kind of remind me of mind-maps that I used to do for exams back during my schooling days. Helpful and very colorful also.

So we decided to walk to Pratunam, but along the way, we chanced upon Siam Ocean World when we passed by Siam Paragon and decide to go for Siam Ocean World instead and pushed back our plans to Pratunam to another day. 

They have 2 types of tix. One at 900 baht, another at 1100 baht. For that additional 200 baht, you get 5 extras including fish spa, a cup of drink and popcorn, a souvenir  which u can collect at their merchandise store and more. So we bought the latter of course, 1100 baht ~ approx SG$44.

There's a 'back of house tour' to show us behind the scene, where the tanks were, where the sick or injured fish were. Interesting to know cause we only see how it looks from outside when we go Under Water World pat SG kan?

We also got to go on the glass bottom boat ride.

At the fish spa....

Mat Thai bawak shark naik Tuk-tuk........

Hmmmphhh.....

Can't imagine...??

See this.... hehehe...
Itu shark ada senyummmmmm~

Next, went to watch their 4D X-venture (which is included with the tix that we paid for)

A few more shots before we left for dinner. Overall, Siam Ocean World is worth a visit at least once if you're ever in Bangkok.

We ended the day with a full stomach from Nasir Al Masri, an Egyptian Restaurant, located just a street away from the hotel. It is the Arab agglomeration on that side of the street.

Ok, that's it.

Dah lama tak update blog.... Sekali update, har... ambik korang...........! Panjang lebar!
InsyaAllah will continue with Bangkok Day II in next entry.

XoXo,
Didi