Day 4
We are finally returning on this day. *Sob*Sob*. We checked out early in the morning and left our luggage with the concierge and proceed with our last day shopping. As we estimate to leave our hotel at around 15:15 pm, so we target only the nearby area. We went back to Platinum Fashion mall of course. This time round, we wanted to start from the upper decks. My wife did her manicure here for THB$100 only. She did not really like the way the lady did the cover coating so if its possible, ask to perform the coating yourself. During this lapse time of 30 minutes, I took a quick trip to Pantip Plaza (their version of Sim Lim Square) and did a quick comb. Never see anything spectacular except for the long missed A&W restaurant. Really feel like a root beer float but I really need to make it back to my wife. Arrived on time and we begin our trip around the mall. Found at one corner this shop called “Sun Star” (their version of Popular) and they sell schooling products, alarm clocks, clothings at wholesale ( 3 piece minimum) and retail prices as well. You will find a lot of Molecule/Tiny Toons-typed products being offered here. After Fashion mall, we proceeded to Pratunam Complex’s “The Canton House” to have our Dim Sum lunch. Each dish cost only THB$15 but they only contain 2 servings and can be quite small. I find the food here slightly average. Its finally time to leave and we took a taxi from our hotel to the hotel. This time round, the taxi driver offered us THB$200 for the entire trip (only 1 road toll required) and we took it. The ride took us 20 minutes. At the airport, we learned that our flight got delayed. So to kill time, we have our last leg massage for the day. We found out that the rates at the airport is priced differently at THB$300 for 45 minutes only (minus the back/shoulder massage). We also toured to the 2^nd terminal but found nothing of interests there. We have fries and burger at the airport’s Burger King before we proceed to check-in. One word of advice, it is quite a distance to the holding area for Airasia and there are security checks in between, so its best to check-in early.
Goodbye Bangkok for now and we will definitely be back!

Day 3
Got smarter this day. Woke up late and left the hotel at 11:00 am. Our morning destination for today is the weekend market, Chatuchak. This market sells almost everything and anything. If you see something you wanted to get, bargain and buy it. Don’t think that you can turn back to the same stall at a later time when you have a change of mind because you will almost never find back the stall again.
Note that the market’s exits are marked with numbers. This is something to take note of when one gets lost. I am explaining this because during this trip, we heard over the PA system of one woman asking for her son to find her at the information counter several times. We hope that she gets reunited with her son eventually.
After 3 hours at this place, we went to the wet market across Chatuchak called Au Tong Kar located next to the Kamphaeng Phet MRT Station. Although it is a wet market, this place is very bright and clean and sells mostly fruits and kuehs. If you have never drink mandarin orange drink before, you can get one here for around THB$30. Its very sweet and nice. One can also find the fruit-shaped keuhs with red bean fillings here as well.

We took the MRT to Sukhumvit station next as we wanted to try Thai Massage at this reputable massage parlour called “The King And I”. Follow the map for direction. As we did not booked our session, we were told to wait for 2 hours before the masseurs are available. In the meantime, we decide to go for our lunch at this also talk about place, “Cabbages and Condoms”. This restaurant is started by the Non profit organization, Population and Community Development Association. Great restaurant with a noble mission for the country. The restaurant serves Thai dishes and it costs us around THB$830 for our meal. We had fried prawn patties, a steamed fish, phat thai and fried crispy mee. The meal is very nice and tasty but too much for the 2 of us to complete. Instead of mints, this restaurant hands out 2 condoms together with your bill. After our meal, we proceeded for our massages. We asked for a private room for the both of us and begin our session. We were serviced by 2 small framed woman but never under-estimate the strength they possess. They can really twist and turn you around. A warning must be stated here. Thai massage is not recommended for people with injury before, especially back injury as they will not ask you this in advance and the moves they made on you will involve a lot of back “breaking” stunts.

After an hour (enough already) of impossibly twisting actions on my body, we proceeded to pay the “Erawan shrine” a visit as it was only recently re-opened to public (it was de-faced by a maniacal man a few months before).
We proceeded to Chit Lom for a quick bite before we proceeded to Suan-Lum (pronounced as Sou-lom) Night Bazaar. This is the night version of Chatuchak and is equally huge and sell almost similar items, but can be a little more expensive. The good thing about this place is that the layout is more systematic and one is less likely to get lost and the area is much cleaner. There are nearby restaurants and café where one can take a chance to coop in air-con before diving out to the hot night outside. beautiful.They also sell furniture and paintings here as well so do take some time to look as some of the paintings are really artistic and beautiful.

Day 2
Woke up at 07:00 am and ready to move on at 07:45 am as we had an early night. We decided to head for the Platinum Fashion Mall first for our Breakfast and 1st shopping stop as we saw from the mall's door that they start operation from 08:00am to 20:00 pm. What a mistake! Apparently, 08:00 am is the mall's opening time for their tenants to enter! The food court is only opened at 09:30 am. Lucky thing for us is that the cafe and Mr Bun open slightly earlier at around 09:00 am. Our Breakfast includes Mr Bun(Coffee flavour), Tea, Ice coffee and oven-heated egg cheese sandwiches for around THB$100. After filling our stomachs, we head over to the Pratunam City Complex /Krung Thong Plaza to complete our exploration since most of the shops are closed when we reach there yesterday. We started with Krung Thong Plaza. It was crowded with lady whole-salers who are bagging the clothings in an auction-like manner. Those ladies carry big plastic type bags and they can really carry. Some interesting thing to note is that some shops sell clothings for bigger sized ladies. Over at Pratunam City Complex, my wife managed to pick up a lot of skirts. It is interesting to learn that the peddlers consider 3 piece or more as wholesale price (THB$170) and anything less as retail price (THB$200). Its already afternoon when our journey at these 2 areas has concluded. Next stop, Chinatown's wet market "Sam Peng". This area is unbelivably HOT! But come to think about it, it is comparable to our own Chinatown at the same timing. There are a lot of shops that a variety of items at wholesale price. We bought some soft toys and shower caps from this area. After an hour, we proceed for lunch at Nan Sing, a famous Chinese restaurant for authentic shark's fin and bird's nest. We picked up some snacks from one snack shop along the way. Its cheaper to get snacks from around this area than in the shopping malls. Our lunch at Nan Sing tab is as follows; THB$600 for the shark's fin, THB$300 for the bird's nest and another THB$300 for the fried pineapple rice. Pretty cheap huh? I must say the fried rice tasted really nice although my wife hated the smell of the chinese sausage. We went back to our hotel to unload our baggage and rested foe a while before we head on to Siam Paragon. My gosh, this place make our Singapore Paragon seemed so tiny. As it was rather late when we arrived, we only explored the 2nd level and the ground level's humongust food mall. It is interesting to know that there is an "Underwater World" at this mall as well. We settled our dinner at the Japanese restaurant, Fuji. The restaurant was really crowded and we have to take a queue number for our turn to enter. The receptionist will attempt to call out your name from their native accent through an external speaker, so unless you can understand Thai very well, I'd suggest you stick close to the waiting list next to the receptionist if your queue number is near. Lucky thing is that they are very systematic and the queue is served chronologically. The food was served to us pretty fast and the ambience is very japan-lish. Our damage for the dinner costs around THB$350 but it was well worth it as self-explained from the photograph on the left. After our sumptuous dinner, we couldn't resist the fondue set from Swenson which costs around THB$230. Trust me, you really need a big stomach (thankfully I have) to finish this fondue set. It comes with 9 scoops of ice cream of your choice and a platter of fruits/cake. We ended this day with foot massage at "Marble House" at Siam Square (opposite Novotel). I would recommend this place for massage as the environment is really soothing and relaxing and the masseurs are really professional. Our service costs us THB$250 each (bargained of course. Normal price is THB$300).

Day 1

Arrived at Bangkok and took a taxi down to our hotel, Indra Regent. Taxi fare is approximately $THB 250 and be sure to have some loose $THB 20 notes as you are expected to pay for the road toll fee of $THB 60 (on top of the $THB 250). Checked into Indra Regent and hopped out of it immediately. No time wasted. My wife and I went around to locate the hyped Pratunam Market. We skit around the Ratchapharap road and attemped to search for the lanes that sell youngsters clothings but failed. Instead, we found lots of auntie clothings and swimwares and lots of stray cats and dogs. Through some winding roads, we finally came to an outing and we saw Platinum Fashion Mall. So off we go. As we did not have lunch, first thing is to settle our stomachs. We had "Mr Bun" (their version of the now defunct Rotiboy) for $THB 10, a crepe with banana and chocolate filling and some coffee and tea at "Grand Canyon Coffee" (their answer to Starbucks). While enjoying the air-conditioned room, we saw across the road, a street selling youngster clothings. Pratunam Market! We rushed to the street and begin walking the strip. It was hot and sweaty. If you can stand Bugis Village in the afternoon, then perhaps you can tolerate this street much better than me. This street closes at around 1730 hours, so we made our way to the shopping malls beside it, Krung Thong Plaza and City Complex Pratunam. We were surprised at the offers of wholesale prices of clothings at these malls, but as the area is closing soon, we were forced to make our exit sonner than we want to. Our stomachs were growling at this time and as planned, we wanted to try the buffet dinner at "Beiyoke Sky" (the tall building at the background). The lobby of this hotel is on the 17th floor. We were told to purchase the buffet ticket from the counter. We were turned off by the price (costs around SGD$40 per pax) and make our exit quickly. At the ground floor, we saw from a sign board which states that guests can dine at 50% off the price. Sheesh. As it is difficult to find restaurant food around this area (or at least I am unaware off), we have to settle for Macdonald (2 set meals that costs around SGD$8) at Indra Square (mall connected to Indra Square). We ended our day with Thai Foot massage at a Nail cum Saloon cum Foot Massage shop opposite to Indra Square. Foot massage costs around $THB 250 (need to bargain!) and they apply a kind of minty cream on your legs. My wife and I did not really like the service here as the massagers were not really paying attention, unlike other shops which we went to. They were too engrossed to their local drama! Our day ends at 22:30 hours and we were dead-beat! You can't imagine we slept like logs as soon as we hit the bed after our bath.

Facts of this trip

Facts on this trip to Thailand, Bangkok May 26-30, 2006.
1) Exchange rate is SGD$ 1 = THB$ 23.82 at Fountain Exchange at Suntec.
2) Travelled on Airasia, cost SGD$420, excluding THB$500 Bangkok airport tax. (Note that as there is no seat allocation with airasia, be sure to sit near the entrance as do not be surprise that people already start to queue up before the plane even gets chucked. You have been warned.)
3) Stayed in Indra Regent (booked from www.asiarooms.com) for four days, three nights for SGD$198. (
4) Indra Square's elevator is activated by your card key so don't think that the elevator is spoilt or anything.
5) Average temperature in the city : 32.8 degree celsius (Sunny days)
6) Travelling flight time on the plane is 2hrs 15mins
7) Thailand, Bangkok is 1hr earlier than Singapore time.
8) Plane leave Singapore time, 10:55am and arrive at Thailand12:15pm Thai time.
9) Returning plane was delayed by an hour and half. Leave Thailand time 19:40pm and arrive at Singapore time 22:55pm.
10) Read from the local magazine that "T"inglish is also a phenomenon language just as "S"inglish is to us. Phenomenon because it is as to us, a natural splice of English with the local language to give us a new-borned language.
11) For those with Google Earth, "Beiyoke Sky" can be found at {lat=13.7541797727, lon=100.5408699}, "Platinam Fashion Mall" is at {lat=13.7498704212, lon=100.539791199}
12) Pratunam area will be jammed from noon time, so its best to avoid travelling out/into this area by transport around this time. We saw a lot of poor tourists literally cooked in their Tuks Tuks as the traffic moved at a snail pace.
13) Masseurs worked hard while you are serviced by them, so tip them for their effort, unless they are really really really * 100 bad. THB$20-40 is our range of tipping.
14) Always bargain unless in a mega-established mall/restaurants like Siam Square/Platinum Fashion Mall etc. Bargain is an art and do not be afraid of losing face while executing this art!
15**) Additional Info. Songkran Day (Splash water day!) happens on 13th April. If you are there on the streets, get ready for extra set of clothings! Heard they splash off cold icy water and ladies, beware of strangers who might take advantage of the chaotic situation.