Bangkok is a place that majority of the people have been to, especially if you’re in South East Asia. However, for those of you who haven’t, here’s a sneak peak on my travel experience in bangkok!
My friend and I took a flight to Bangkok for 3 days. The flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We got lucky on the day as our hand carry luggage bags got checked in for free because the flight was pretty full. When you board the flight, the flight attendant will hand you a form that you need to fill up and submit at the immigration in Bangkok Airport. If you’re planning ahead for your day, do budget spending about an hour to queue for the immigration.
Once done and dusted, we waited for their public bus A3 which cost 50THB per person that brought us to Pratunam. I don’t know what exactly it is but I’m quite fond with their public buses. You will feel very comfortable in it.
We stayed in Eastin Makkasan Hotel, Pratunam. Now, this was a bit costly but I’m a vegetarian and I was very afraid I won’t be able to find food, so my cousin suggested this hotel as they provide Indian breakfast buffet. It’s a 4 star hotel and we got a good deal booking it via Agoda. For 2 nights, with a queen bed room, we paid RM483 including tax. Once we reached there, since it was our lucky day, we got upgraded to a deluxe room! We really have no idea to this significance but our floor was called the Play Room😜
Bangkok is all about shopping and eating and massages. Those are the things you’re expected to do redundantly. From our hotel, we got really very easy access to Indian food, Thai food, Thai street food and also fats food. We also had easy access to Pratunam Mall, Platinum Mall, Big C and Indra Shopping Centre. The night market outside Platinum Mall is amazing. You can get all sorts of things at a reasonably cheap price.
Wherever there are shrines, there will be gorgeous Thai girls dancing to a tradition song. We thought it may be a festival going on, but apparently this happened at almost every shrine we passed by.
From where we put up, the BTS train was also within walking distance but we did not explore the trains there.
We enjoyed their tuk tuk and motorbike rides. It felt like low wheel roller coaster rides. However their drivers were not very professional or considerate I would say. They would take you to wherever you ask them to even if they don’t know the place and then just dump you wherever they feel they should. We got that happened twice with us.
Their signature Tom yum is delicious everywhere you go to. We tried one in Bombay Palace (apparently there are just too many Indian shops in bangkok) and another one in Pe Aor Seafood.
On our second day, after Pe Aor seafood, we asked the motorbike riders if they could take us to Asiatique. They said yes. They dropped us at Palladium Mall, Pratunam and said Asiatique is nearby here. We asked the security guard on how to proceed to Asiatique from where we were dropped and he asked us to continue going straight. We did. And we kept on walking straight until I felt it wasn’t right anymore. We stopped by to ask some riders if we were going the right way, and they said Asiatique is 5km away and that would cost each of us 150THB. Feeling cheated, we continued walking until we found a tuk tuk rider and he explained more logically on how we had gotten cheated earlier as Asiatique is nowhere nearby where we were dropped. He suggested we take a boat ride to sightsee instead and dropped us in Chinatown. When we saw the price which cost us 2000THB each, we politely walked away from there. We asked the tuk tuk guy to bring us back to Pratunam but he came up with 101 excuses not to. We then realised that they were all teamed up and because we refused to take their package, this was what we got in return. We walked in Chinatown until we found a public boat that FINALLY brought us to Asiatique for 60THB. Phew!
Asiatique is a beautiful place. There are lots of stores which sells all sorts of souvenirs and clothes and tonnes of food choices. There is also a ferries wheel that let’s you see the whole of Bangkok for 450THB. It is a romantic place to date too or just be with your friends and take lots of beautiful picturesque photos.
And oh, we got our massage done at Dariya Massage Parlour, Pratunam. They are excellent and friendly and of course leaves your body light and energetic by the end of the massages. A Thai massage only cost us 200THB.
Lesson learnt, things may go out of the way we plan sometimes, but it always happens for the best reason.
Traveling on its own is a beautiful and memorable experience that adds a difference to your lives. So that was much about Bangkok, Thailand, sawadeekha!
Petals of Moments 