Chatuchak Weekend Market

Going towards the direction of Bang Sue. Our next stop is Chatuchak Weekend Market.

The MRT ticket is a plastic black coin that works like an EZLink card. Hmm.. how uncreative can man be when it comes to design.

Caught this little Thai girl standing on a bench eating ice-cream.

Joanelle applying glue on the pink slip.

Uncle Lau making a donation.

Beautiful fishes hang at the entrance of the temple. I'm busy taking photos while my friends are busy inside.

The irony - this poor beggar sitting outside the temple waiting for donations but nobody cared. People are inside the temple too "busy" making donations to care.

People making donations. Guess what do they donate? Coffins. Yes, each coffin costs 50 baht. After making a donation, you will be given a pink slip to write your name. You can go to a corner to put glue on the pink paper and stick your name onto the cardboard coffins behind. These coffins are donated to those people who died in accidents without any next-of-kins.

Money-tree

Inside the temple

Chinese Temple

End of Day 1 - Traditional Thai Massage

We ended Day 1 with traditional Thai massage which costs only 80 baht (about S$6) which is super duper cheap. The shop closes at 1am, so we went back to our hotel room to drop our shopping bags, took turns to bath and went down to the shop just next to our hotel at 12am, just in time before it closes. We went to 7-11 to buy some drinks and snacks before heading back to our hotel room. However, the massage was so good that we fell into deep sleep.

Found pink eggs at 7-11 store. They look much smaller than quail eggs. Unfortunately, I can't read Thai.

We still had our fill with Tom Yam soup and pineapple rice even though I found a baby cockroach on my spoon before we started eating.

The seats is located on the second storey of what seems like that of a shop house in Singapore. Quite homely decor.

Restaurant with interesting decor

Our Thai friend explaining the menu to Uncle Lau. By the way, the Thai girl is Uncle Lau's god-sis.

MBK Centre - where we did most of our shopping. The covered bridges extend from one side to another side of the road and links all the way under the MRT tracks it becomes a giant bridge.

Empty street - a rare sight

4 different ways of cooking bird's nest - 250 baht per bowl (S$20) This is the something that I regret spending so much money on.

Pretty chrysanthemum tea that is so tasteless I thought it was plain water with yellow colouring added. We were grateful for the ice that took away the heat though.

Resting our feet at a bird's nest shop

Chinatown

What a bargain at the hair accessory wholesaler. S$1 for a whole bunch! Most of the stuff here we see are available in Singapore with prices not 10-fold, but 300 times the cost price! Now you know how much those shops make when they sell you a hair clip for $6 when the cost price is probably only 20 cents.

At the wholesale market with our Thai friend.

Thai Coconut Ice-cream with peanut topping. The coconut taste is super-duper fragrant. We love it!

Ice kacang lookalike!

Thai chilli padi, Thai lime and garlic. To be added to the dip according to each's tastes. The dip tastes like ultra-sweet satay sauce. Quite nice for someone like me who's got a sweet tooth.

Our first meal - Thai steamboat. The raw ingredients are dipped in boiling water on the sides of the grill before putting them on the grill to cook. End result is half-steam-half-grill.

A Tut-Tut. It has a sign on top that reads "Taxi". Normally, you can tell the driver your destination and ask how much. Bargain and come to an agreement before getting on. There is no limit on the number of people you can squeeze on it. So squeeze! This is a much cheaper form of transport as compared to the actual taxi. But if the journey is too long, it can be very tiring if someone needs to sit on your lap. And especially so if that someone is very heavy-weight. Each trip costs between 30 - 70 baht, depending on distance and peak hour. No dependence on number of persons though.

MBK River

Strange to see a pillar with 4 elephant heads by the roadside. I am not sure what that is for but it looks like a religious symbol.

My friends sped off after dropping the luggage at Asia Hotel. Walking towards our first shopping spot - MBK. The weather was incredibly hot. I seriously suspect the temperature to be more than 40 degrees celsius! Sunglasses, sunscreen and skippy clothes are essentials. I can feel my skin being burnt by the scotching heat. Serious air pollution is also another contributing factor to the heat. If you think Jurong industrial area is bad, the air pollution here is 20 times worse.

Inside the cab, the number plate was actually nailed to the side of the left door. Kind of strange. According to the travel guide, the cab fare from the airport to hotel was approximately 350 baht. The cab driver asked for 400 baht and we hopped on without bargaining. The meter was switched off. After calculating, this trip costs us around S$32. Expensive!! However, with the kind of traffic jam on the highways, it might cost even more with the meter readings.

There was no photographs of the airport at Bangkok as we left hurriedly after getting on to the taxi. We were pestered by a lot of local tour guides trying to persuade us to take on their packages. We felt like 4 lambs being hounded by hungry wolves!

Bangkok Trip for JJDL

We thank Slushy for her beautiful pictures and wonderful description of her Korea trip. I guess you girls can't wait to see my entries for my Thailand trip. It was a short 3 days 2 nights weekend stay for a break for me and my colleagues. We named ourselves JJDL with the initials of our names - Jerlynn, Joanelle, Dawn, Uncle Lau. Here we go!