2008 Holidays - Part 1 - Bangkok 7th - 12th May 2008

This trip was way back May last year and I only managed to post on the arrival to Bangkok International Airport... and that's when window's live writter decided not to ease my task.. sigh.. too many photos too little time.. so now i'm just gonna do a small summary about my trips and holidays of 2008. This is by far my most successful resolution and wishlist fulfilled :D To have international trips at least once a year and my wish to go for holidays. Photos taken were actually plenty... but i'm just gonna put some of it... else I'm never going to have this post completed :D

My Bangkok trip was pretty last minute... it was supposed to be an all girls trip with my babes.. but ended up it's so hard to just please everyone's schedule and preferred location, 3 of us just decided to just go on with any plan available and Goh brought along her colleague, Chooi Yee. so off we go to Sawadeekha Bangkok! That was my first trip overseas after so so so long i can't remember when was my last trip overseas.. imagine i have to go make new passport for this trip... the last trip if i'm not mistaken, i think it was Krabi and Phi Phi Island. My dad brought us there like donkey years ago... I have to say everything was pretty much well planned as we managed to covered most of the must visit tourist attraction :D

The first must visit in Bangkok is of course the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (The Emerald Buddha)

(Wat Pho) The Reclining Buddha is also a must visit, the Standing Buddha ( Luang Pho To - Wat Intharavihan) and the Sitting Buddha I can't remember the name of the wat. It seems that these are the main and biggest pure gold Buddha-s in bangkok... According to a nice man that gave us few directions to these Wat-s

And of course we did experience tuk tuk and their SkyTrain rides; visits shopping malls like MBK, Platinum Mall, Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery and few others... too bad we did not manage to go the high end and one of South East Asia's biggest mall Central World... shopping is so a must in Bangkok.. everything is so so cheap!! Chatuchak (Jajujak - JJ) is also a must... it's by far one of the biggest weekend market I've been.. but because of the heat.. (it was the hottest time of the year) we could not really manage to really concentrate on shopping cos we were practically aiming for little stalls with airconds.. haha.. we pretty much spent 8 hours plus there and only cover less than 1/4 of the market.. so imagine how long you need to really visit all stores... but you can get anything here.. anything and everything and bargained and cheap price!

We also learnt that the Thais are very patriotic people... everyday at 6pm their local time, they national anthem will be broadcasted on all radio stations... and what happened was, well, Chatuchak is a very busy place filled with loads of people... so me and my friend, Memek was walking to meet up with Goh and her colleague at the clock tower, it was packed and you need to squeeze in the moving people to get thru the way... but halfway squeezing, all of the sudden i could feel like we both could walk smoothly without the need to squeeze... i turn around wanting to ask memek.. and then only i noticed that the national anthem is playing on the loud speakers around the market and everyone... i mean... EVERYONE stood still, some sing along some just wait for the song to end... so of course me and memek stopped and stood still along cos we have been walking so fast like nobody's business not noticing it's the national anthem playing on the speakers... malu ni... so must respect also their culture...

We opt for Ayutthaya this time round instead of Pattaya due to the weather... it's so hot we were sun baking from sunrise to sunset... no matter how much water you drink, you will not go to the toilet very often cos you will sweat like a pig :P So with the decision for a historical tour instead of beach tour, we signed for a one day tour Ayutthaya for around MYR 160 per pax. it covers half day of tour around Ayutthaya and a river cruise of aproximately 2 hours with lunch buffet back to Bangkok. Tour guide for the day was the boss himself, Jacky.. since there's only four of us.. he personally guide this tour on his Volvo... haha.. We went to the few ruins of Ayutthya, first stop was Wat Chaiwatthanaram, second and fouth pic viewing by clockwise on top pic followed by Wat Mahathat, the first and third pic with the Buddha's head buried among the tree roots.

We then proceeded to Wat Lokayasutharam (Reclining Buddha), Pang Chang Ayothaya for elephant ride and Bang Pa-In (Summer Palace). Pretty much baked to perfection already that time :P

After all the tour, time to board the Sun River Cruise... we were late and the last to board.. paiseh... we had a relaxing buffet lunch and tea while cruising along Chao Phraya River back to Bangkok... enjoyed the view and manage to see Wat Arun that we didn't have the time to visit.. Wat Arun is the prettiest at dawn and so it's also known as the temple of dawn..

The tour was supposed to end but jacky was nice enough to offer to bring us to a typical thai dinner, with glutinious rice, papaya salad (som tam), cat fish salad, i don't know what's the other 2 called but it was pork and duck meat, not forgetting the yummy sour and spicy tom yam!
he then brought us to chinatown and also the Erawan's Shrine. Oh ya.. we went to the Thai Girl's show too... it's kinda disturbing.. ok.. done.. period..

Well, with few days of shopping, here's there achievement :P and i wish i have brought bigger luggage and have more time to shop :P until then, i'm definitely gonna plan second round to Bangkok.. maybe this time can go Pattaya :D Anyone wanna join??