City of Angels (and scammers) - Bangkok

Sa-wa-di-kar (I hope I spelled the words correctly). Last weekend was spent in Bangkok, where a coup had just happened days before my arrival. Anyway, my sis and me decided to go-ahead even though there is a coup (since itz was a peaceful coup).

We arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon, and we being naive was "ga-tok" by the taxi driver and the supposedly honest taxi-stand coordinator at the airport into paying BHT350 for a trip from the airport to our hotel (Asia Hotel Bangkok). It actually only cost us BHT200 by meter and toll included .... sign ....

After registrating at the hotel and unpacked our bags, we went to custom make our clothes and thereafter started our conquer on the shopping centres. 1st stop is the Siam Centre, Siam Paragon and MBK but we didnt get anything except for 2 big bottles of mineral water. (Well we had a steamboat dinner at MBK and it was nice and cheap).

The next day, we spent the whole morning at the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market and we ahem shop and spend $$$. We also tried their roadside foodstuff as such fried noddles and chendol and they are really nice. Luckily we dont have any side effect.

In the afternoon, we went back to MBK to continue our shopping. We had our lunch-dinner at the Black Canyon Cafe, which serves very nice coffee, chicken wings and tom-yam soup. At night, we decide to brave all circumstance to reach Nan Xing (a Chinese restaurant selling cheap shark fins and birdnest) in Chinatown by ourselves. It was a failure, we lost our way and thankfully a young and kind boy brought us all the way there. He even told us to take a tuk-tuk back to the BTS station and cost us BHT20 becos' itz is not safe for girls to roam the streets at night.

After dinner, we went to Suan Lum Night Market and bought some more T-shirts. It cost me only S$8 for a good material T-shirt with good design.

By the time we return to the hotel, it was nearly midnight and we were so tired ...

The third day, we decided to take a cruise of the Chao Phraya River and stopover to visit Wat Po and Grand Palace. After the Wat Po visit, we met a Thai teacher who told us about visiting the Black Buddha and Golden Mountain. On the way, he advise us to visit the Export Centre selling gems (we initially thought that he was being helpful but later found out that this is actually a scam to cheat the tourist into buying gems from the shop). Well, we did visit and Black Buddha and Golden Mountain and the scenaries of Bangkok was nice, except we don't like the dishonest Thais. Thereafter, we went to Grand Palace and the entrance fees were BHT250 and we decided to skip this. Instead, we took pictures on the outside.

Along the river, some of the interesting sights and buildings ...










The temples ...










After the trip to the temples, we return to the tailor to test our clothings and went back to the central pier for an express boat to Banglumpo Pier to Khao San.

On the way, we took pictures of the Phrasumain Fortress.
At Khao San, we tried the illegal hawker fried noddles. There are a lot of pubs and shops doing silverware wholesaling. Other than that, nothing much to see and it started to rain too. So we ended up taking a cab back to Siam Paragon, where we had our dinner at a Japanese restuarant. It cost us only S$15.

Then itz the last round of shopping before we went back to the hotel to rest and pack our luggage for the trip home the next day.

==================================================================
Our luggages:
Before the trip

Light and empty... flat some more







After the trip


Heavy and packed to the brim. Lucky it did not exceed the 15KG allowance.


==================================================================