Gonna get started on my posts about my recent trip to Bangkok, Thailand, which I enjoyed thoroughly because I went away with Tzu during the recess week of my semester and it was a well deserved holiday from the craziness of school! So here goes, (: !
Well, what's not to love about Bangkok: there's great and cheap food all around(I'm an absolute fan of thai cuisine) and great deals for shopping of clothes/bags/shoes(you name it, they have it!).
Our flight was booked for 7.30am on 29th September which was a Sunday, and we arrived at Changi Airport at 5.30am.
Sky Train-ed to have breakfast at T2(Changi Airport)
Boarded on the flight soon after and in a short 2 hours, we'd landed in BKK! (:
While waiting for everyone to get off the plane.
Hehe, loving the Totoro neck cushion which my sissy got from Taobao
We went to get a 3G SIM Card so that I could still access the Internet and social media platforms, and there are quite a few choices of Telecommunication companies. My plan was from DTAC, and it came with unlimited 3G usage for 7 days, and 100 baht worth of overseas phone calls. It cost me 299 Thai Baht, which is about 12 SGD (:
Next, we looked around for the Airport Express, which is a much cheaper option of getting into the city area of Bangkok as compared to a cab ride. It only cost 90 baht for an express ride from the airport to Phaya Thai and the trip took only 18mins! (: A much better alternative as compared to being caught in traffic jams and paying a higher price for a cab ride.
An overview of the different stops and lines in Bangkok (:
Express Tokens bought from the Airport, to bring us to the city area
On the Airport Express!
We kinda got lost because we didn't do enough research on how to find our hotel exactly, and we went around in a huge circle before arriving there. LOOONGGGG STORY hahaha. Our hotel was actually situated right next to Ratchaprarop , which is a station on the Airport Rail Link. But we were unaware and thought that it was nearest to the BTS station Chitlom, and ended up walking a good 20 mins in the sun and dragging our luggage hahaha.
Sights of the busy busy streets of Bangkok
Finally, we arrived at our hotel which is
Tango Vibrant Living Place, and right next to Ratchaprarop Station (: The staff were very kind to let us check in way ahead of the original check-in timing in the afternoon, and so here's how our room looked like:
The room was huge and clean; very much worth the amount we paid which was about 50/55 SGD for a night only! (: It's about a 10 minutes walk away from shopping malls like Platinum mall, and just a 2-3 min walk away from the Airport Rail Link station of Ratchaprarop. It was overall quite a good and reasonable location to stay in, in my opinion (:
Washed up a little, and headed out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is located at BTS station Mo Chit :D
What I wore: Cokesbury Stripe Top in Navy and Aloha Shorts in Cream; both from Aforarcade
Tourists; who were all headed to the Chatuchak market
And there we were, in the heart of the Chatuchak Weekend Market! (: Do take note that the entire market is super mega huge and it's kind of impossible to cover every section and every lane in one day. There's like a total of 27 sections I think, and items for sale range from clothes to ornaments to furniture and even pets! Do stick together as a group or make sure that you're with someone where ever you go!
The sun was mad crazy hot that day and we were just perspiring like madness in the open. Be prepped for the hot weather! Bring along water and a portable hand-held electronic fan if you're really afraid of heat (:
Coconut Icecream :9 (But apparently this isn't the authentic one of Chatuchak, we found the more popular stall later on)
After shopping around for a couple of hours, we decided to go for lunch at one of the roadside stalls which had seating.
Hahaha I had to take a picture of the Dring menu
Ah, I can't rotate the menu picture somehow though ): But they were pretty much serving Thai dishes! (:
We ordered a Thai Milk Tea to share, Green Curry with Chicken and Seafood Tom Yum Goong.
Okay, so the green curry was extremely spicy and nothing like those we've eaten in Singapore at all hahaha. Tom Yum Goong was extremely delicious and I absolutely loved it because it was so tasty! I'm a total tom yum fan actually :9 hehe.
Fried Insects for you? (Okay, I just had to put this in cause it's gross haha.)
We went about finding the authentic coconut icecream stall of Chatuchak, and found it! Yippee :D It's located between Section 1 and 2, near to the entrance of Kamphaeng phet MRT station.
How the stall looks like
Yummy, sweet coconut icecream :9 :9
I honestly don't think that there was much of a difference between the first and second one I tried, but others reckon that the second one is yummier though! Hahaha so remember to find the stall and give it a try when you're at the Chatuchak Market :D
The weather was super killer that day, so we sought shelter at the staircase of the Kamphaeng phet MRT Station, where Tzu took a 10 minutes nap while I fiddled with Instagram to upload some photos hahaha.
Check out the lady in the background who's taking a snooze too hehe.
I would say the MRT station is a great place to take a break because there's shade and they don't chase you away for sitting on the steps hahaha :D
And so after resting for a little while, there was more shopping:
And we found ourselves back in the shade once more at the MRT station with some snacks for a break hahaha.
Sad faces because we were SO. TIRED. from the heat
We took a few more turns here and there and left the market at about 5-ish in the evening, and decided to just kill some time waiting in the underground with some air-con before heading to our next destination.
We had planned to go to Rod-Fai Night Market, which is a weekend night market selling vintage goods and trinkets with street stalls of food and bars and located about a 10-15 mins walk from the Kamphaeng phet MRT station. BUT, it turned out that the market had moved away to somewhere really far?! )': And we didn't know! ):
So we had no plans for the night any longer, and I was rather disappointed as I really wanted to go to Rod-Fai because I love vintage stuff! It's definitely on my to-go list on my next trip to BKK! For those interested, the market has moved to Srinakarin Soi 51, just behind Seacon Square as according to this
source.
Well, so we decided to head back to our hotel district and spent the night exploring and getting our bearings right around the area.
I don't know what I'll do without Tzu, because my sense of recognition/direction is pretty much limited as I'm easily distracted by sights and sounds of roadside stalls and people hahaha. Hehe, best boyfriend for sure, who takes super good care of me! ♡
Some street stalls along the way
Ended off the day with dinner which we took away back to the hotel because we were rather exhausted from the crazy walking throughout the day.
Fried Chicken, NOMZ.
One more thing to mention before I end off, the fried chicken in BKK is seriously yummy and definitely a must-try. We got 2 pieces from a random mobile road side stall, and they were SO GOOD, especially with the sweet chilli sauce which comes with it. Do remember to try it when you're there! (:
The Chatuchak Market's shopping was pretty okay for me I feel, but the whole atmosphere of the market is worth taking a trip down for. I think my best buys were like getting a pair of shoes for 150 baht, and a romper for only 200baht, and some vintage shirts for only 100 baht each! And there are definitely good deals to be found in that hugeeeee market which I may have missed, so do pay it a visit if you're heading to Bangkok! (:
Ending off Day 1 of my travelogue in Bangkok here, Day 2 would be up soon! (:
