Friday, September 14, 2012

The last part of the Bangkok trip was about the temples trip.
Another amazing thing of Bangkok is their wat (temple in Siam).


[Wat Traimit] The first temple I visited
 





As per cerita-ed by the tour guide, she said the sizeand standard of the temple are deferred according to the richness of the citizens who lived around the temples. The richer of their citizens, the better you will see the temples there because the temple can get more donations from the citizens.

Wat Traimit, is a very nice wat with a real gold Buddha. Made of about 83% pure gold and weighing in at five and a half tons, the 15-foot tall seated image is worth millions of dollars at today's gold prices.

[Wat Pho]

Also known also as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.








Wat Pho is actually quite big. Look at the Plan of the temple below. I've captured a lot of photos of the temples. But to avoid the boringness, or I think you've already bored at the beginning, I only can say this is what Bangkok about. I really hope you can enjoy the photos.



I really think that the giant who stands in front of the wat's door look like "Kong Zi".

[Wat Intharawihan]

Standing Buddha Temple.
 



Admission: Free.

-to be continue- [next on: Grand Palace]



 

Awesomeness of Bangkok Trip -part 2-


The show was continued with visiting to Floating Market, Monkey Village and Cobra show.


Before I visited Bangkok, I've read some articles about the animal abuse. I thought maybe I can see some special show like the cobra, but not some show like make fun of the animal. Entry fee to Monkey Village is about 200baht. To be frank, I will not recommend you to watch this show, because it is really bad.

The people trained the monkeys to do all the funny and cute actions just like a typical monkey show. What I could think of was how suffered of the monkeys when they were being trained. Sigh.

  

Let's just end the topic about the monkeys.


One of the food must try in Bangkok must be this one, Coconut Ice Cream!

I tell you, it tasted really good especially eating them during the hot weather.

 
After having the very coconut-ish ice cream, we were being brought to another exciting moment of the trip which is Floating Market. I expected it could be a highlight of the trip!
But the feeling of it was... ok normal.

It was started with a motor boat riding which was bringing us to go around the area. Along this boat trip, it was quite extreme I would say. The noise made by the motor of the boat was very loud. It brought us to see around the place. Got a few times I thought the boat was gonna flipped over and we might be falling into the water if the driver didn't drive the boat properly. I was terrified because I can't swim and I might be eaten by crocodile. How if there are crocodiles in the water and they attack us?! Ok. I have good imagination.



Along the way, you can see all the floating plants, boats, and houses built along the waterway. It's quite amazing. I used to watch some Thai movies, sometimes I see they can even wash their clothes right beside the river. What I cannot understand could be, what will happen to those houses when the flood comes. Crocodiles can just simply get into their houses. o.0"


I do have a lot of expectations towards the so called "real" floating market in Thailand. I've been to the floating market in Hat Yai. That was super fake as the boats are parked along the river and the people doesn't need to take boat to purchase the food. I felt I was being cheated that time. Due to the food there was quite nice so I decided to forgive them.

After a year I have the chance to visit the real floating market now. But I felt a little bit disappointed. What I've seen in the advertisement was fake. The boats of visitors and 3x times more than the boats that really sell food and things.

We were being warmed not to put our hands outside the boat. This is because there were too much of visitors and boats and the waterway was jam!


I also thought I can get to eat a lot of great food there, but along this visit, I only bought Mango pulut only. It wasn't filling at all. My sisters and brother can't even get anything from there and suffered from hunger. -.-" I'm not kidding.

After that, we went to a must watch Cobra show. Why it is must watch? The show was quite good actually. The performers there were well trained and risking their lives to do those actions with poisonous snakes. I know they might be doing it a few times per day until they become so friend with the snakes. But from an audience's view, they really worked hard for it.

Refer below for some photos:





See how they fight the snakes! It's just about 200baht per entry.

Friendly advise:
Don't ever sit at the first row if you don't want yourself to get heart attack.


-to be continue again-

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Awesomeness of Bangkok Trip -part 1-


Before going to Bangkok, I’ve already have the thought of writing this post, besides photo sharing, but also some useful information for your future Bangkok trip. Believe me, except the weather and bad traffic, Bangkok is really a great place for shopping. Opps, I mean traveling.



The trip was started with short traveling from my house to Bukit Kayu Hitam, and from the immigration Danok to Hat Yai airport. For the transportation to Hat Yai airport, if you are traveling alone, I would recommend you to take taxi. I was traveling with my family in total of 6 persons, so we booked a van instead of taking cab. That van cost us about RM150 per way, which is about RM320 for 2 ways including tips for the van driver.


An advice from me, try your best not to choose public holiday for traveling period. I know it is easier to get leave for many days during festive season but please look at the picture above, the small airport is so crowded and most of them are Malaysians. There was about few flights to Bangkok on the same day. Small yet busy airport I would say.




Black Canyon Coffee is a franchise type of coffee shop. It is the biggest coffee chain in Bangkok, somehow I only met once or twice in Bangkok I think. I saw other coffee shops more than Canyon. -.-“

After 1 and half hour of traveling in the airplane, I reached Suvarnabhumi International Airport. :D At first I wasn’t really excited about the trip, but when I see the little kids with the traditional costumes and masks welcoming me at the arrival hall I was really shocked! I might feel pity for the kids because started to earn money at this young age. But look at their feet, so small and cute. Perhaps they are being protected and provided by enough rest after work.
 



Make sure you wear a pair of comfortable shoes for traveling. This is mine! Hui Wen was in Bangkok! Weeee~ Suddenly can feel the passion of traveling in Bangkok, don’t you?  




Next, I would like to introduce this hotel I stayed in Bangkok. It is about RM150-160 per night. It gets cheaper if you stay for more nights. Here goes, Legacy Express. 



The rooms were being painted in some sharp stylish colors. Once I opened the door I was impressed! The room was nicely decorated and clean. Even the plasma TV was preset with a lot of channels, from music channel to kids’ cartoon channel. I spent my free time watching at those music videos and Thailand typical TV advertisements. Free Wifi is provided, the problem of the Wifi is it will automatically log you out from the connection once you are not active for few minutes. It is good enough for me as long as I can use it. Some other hotels even ask you to pay when you need extra service from them.

The distance of the hotel to the nearest BTS station is just about 5 minutes, which is Phloen Chit station. I rate 4.5 stars for this hotel. =)




[Chatuchak Weekend Market]

This is a place MUST GO! I tell you! MUST GO! As per stated above, it is a weekend market, so please make sure your trip has included the weekend. -.-“ The best plan could be making both Saturday and Sunday in your trip. If you feel not enough time to hunt for goods on Saturday, you can still visit again on Sunday. What a good plan.

The Chatuchak market is very big. 3 times of Taiwan Wu Fen Pu market, about 3 times of the Hat Yai market I bet. My family and I were lost in there, we kept going back to the same place even we have the very brief map of Chatuchak. You can find almost everything in this market, if you are lucky. You can even find people selling puppies and birdies in there. Below are some photos of the things I’ve seen there.









There are few shops above which I really recommend you all to visit. Such as the Dot Dot Dot Shirt, a whole shop full of Singlets shop, and the fruit stalls. -.-" The weather there is extremely hot, you would need some chilling fruits to chill yourself.

Chatuchak Market would be a really great reason why I will go back to Bangkok one day!


-to be continue-