Bangkok - A Shopping Paradise

Day 1: Check in and shopping at Silom area

Took flight at 12.45pm and reached Bangkok airport at 2pm (Thai time). This was my first time taking budget airline. The experience was nice and in fact I enjoyed the flight. The seats were not as cramp as I expected... quite spacious. Mum also prepared fried rice for us to eat on the plane. Yum yum...think the 3 guys sitting in front of us were envy coz the fried rice smell so delicious!

We took a cab to our hotel - Grand Diamond Hotel and managed to check it around 4pm. This hotel is far better than what I have expected. The room is spacious and has a living room, mini kitchen, big toilet and bedroom. The service staffs were also very friendly. Overall, the stay there was very satisfactory.

Sis and I couldn't wait long after checking in our luggages. We went to Platinium, the nearest shopping mall beside our hotel for dinner and begin our shopping. The foodcourt there has a wide variety of food and all are very cheap, around S$2 each dish! We had birdnest, sharkfin, fried oyster, Tom yam soup, chicken rice... wow... we ordered as much as we can. The shopping mall close early and hence we only shop for a while and took a cab down to Silom to continue our shopping spree. We walked through the crowded night markets and saw the pole-dancing 'arh guas', skimply dressed in bikini and seducing men. Sis and I see until jaw dropped and laughed at the sight. Haha...quite fun, but no photo taking too bad. We walked through many streets of "pasa-malam" and return to hotel around 10.30pm. Not letting the day end so early, all of us decided to sit at the hotel lobby and enjoy some live singing and supper. We sat there enjoying our sushi and drinks until 11.15pm. Only then we return to our room to rest.



Day 2: Temple visiting and Shopping at MBK area

We woke up very early at 7.30am and get ready for breakfast at the hotel by 8am. The breadfast was excellent with lots of variety, including Chinese, English and Japanese food. Now feeling very guilty for eating so much then. Wah, must work-out more le. We left straight to Emerald buddha early morning. Who knows, our entire morning was wasted when we were cheated by a well-dressed Thai man, who speaks good English and claims to be from Thailand's Tourism Board. He says that the temple is not open in the morning, and suggested that we take up a short trip to 3 other destinations nearby and offer the entire journey at only $50 baht for 5 persons! (That's only for S$2 in total)

All of us were like cuo-koos, tricked to get on the 2 tu-tus and tour around the place, not realising that we are like 5 huge vacuum cleaners, inhaling all the dusty and polluted air. Wah kaoz, luckily we are staying there for 4 days loh, or else one morning will be more precious to us. These Tu-tus brought us to those gem and clothing factory, and only 1 small temple. The gems there were highly priced and of poor quality. Not worth looking at all. After completing the tu-tus tour, we continued with visiting to the Emerald Buddha. Oh, finally.

The day was not very smooth. We took a cab to Chinatown and traffic was really bad. Hence we decided to get off the cab, not realising the shops along the street were all selling rifles and machine guns. Hohoho...that's scary! We only realise that after we got off the cab. We walked quite a distance until we left that scary stretch of street. We were so afraid that there will be some mad man running around with guns and witness any robbery. After hard time, we finally got onto a cab and proceed to MBK for shopping again.

MBK is huge too. I feel like a kid feeling so excited upon reaching an amusement park. Lunch was at a restuarant called Nam Sing. There were many Singaporeans there too. The seafood there was fresh and delicious. We ordered 6 yummy dishes. After filling our stomach, we continue with our shopping. Everything is so cheap! Bags and shoes going at only199 Baht= S$8! We just buy and buy and buy, non-stop. Dinner was at the foodcourt above MBK, where we had Japanese Terpanyaki. The set meals are cheap! After dinner, we decided to return to hotel and rest early.



Day 3: Shopping at Pratunum Market and Isetan

On our third day, we sort of split ways so that mum and dad won't have to wait for the 2 ladies, as we tend to stop once every few shops. Morning after breadfast at hotel, we shopped around the Pratunum market. This is their wholesale market, and hence very crowded in the morning. We see lots of retailers going to these stalls to collect their stock. The prices there are even cheaper. Some of the clothes can be as cheap as $80 baht (Less than S$4) per top. The designs were not bad too, similar to those of Iora and Bega type of tops. Some tops comes with brouches too, so even more worth it! I think all women will get crazy looking at the cheap prices.

We return to hotel to drop our plastic bags. Then return to Platinum for lunch. As we did not have enough time to shop on our first day, we continue to shop there again. Around 3pm, we proceed to Isetan. This time, we become expert already, don't need to take cab. Instead, we walk to Isetan for coffee and shopping. After which, we had dinner at Dragon Seafood Restraunt. This is a super scary restraunt. Prices are extremely steep and the service staff is very pushy. This was our last dinner at Bangkok, so we decided to order some dishes and later continue our dinner part 2 at other places. We visited MBK and Siam shopping after dinner. On our way, there were lots of stalls along the street. This is the first time that I felt tired of shopping. OMG, even during my HongKong trip, I did not feel it this way. We stopped over at McDonalds for some supper and walk back slowly to hotel and pack our luggage for return. Dad, sis and kor went for massage at the hotel. Me? haha...If I go, it will be a laughing session and not massage session. I am so afraid of massage, so stayed with mum in the room.



Day 4: Last Day

Our last day in Bangkok. Early in the morning after breadfast, all of us took a little stroll at Pratunam market again. This time, we are there to buy an extra bag to put our stuffs, coz we bought too many stuffs and could not squeeze them all in our luggages. We had a short tour and return to hotel around 11pm to get ready for checking out. We took some pictures and left for airport. We had Pork beehoon and later on KFC before reaching Singapore.