gosh, i can’t believe i have to leave bangkok in two days’ time. i have already gotten so used to living in my serviced apartment, walking to the BTS station to take the skytrain, exploring the city by myself, taking pictures wherever i go, talking to random strangers, etc etc etc! but today, i saw the ugly side of bangkok.

tuk-tuk drivers. NEVER agree when they approach you to drive you to your destination. chances are they would drive you off to a jewelry store where you would waste your already very limited time browsing through the boring jewelry so that they could earn commission and free gasoline from the store.

how they operate is usually like this: the tuk-tuk driver spots a tourist. he then approaches the tourist asking where he wants to go. the tourist names a place called XXX. the driver would then suggest going to another place called YYY before driving him to XXX, claiming YYY is a great place. but in actual fact, it’s only because the jewelry store lies along the route to YYY. and he doesn’t mention the jewelry place until he has already driven you off. usually, he would offer a very cheap fare of 20 baht which you would find hard to resist.

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Plugs: BK, Veron, Nat, Mandy, giantemu

people always seem surprised when they find out my trip in bangkok lasts seven days. they tend to think that seven days is too long. but right now, i suspect i may have to extend my trip because there is so much more to do and so little time left. i’m seriously beginning to fall in love with bangkok.

i went to chatuchak weekend market today. they have all kinds of things there, such as clothes, accessories, food, household stuff, toys, pets, you name it. there are supposedly 20,000 over stalls open on weekends, and it’s really no exaggeration. it’s impossible to visit every stall because there are just too many, and it’s almost like a maze. to avoid getting lost, i took pictures along the way to set up a “picture trail”. so that when it’s time to leave, i could just follow the pictures and backtrack.

for now i would just let the pictures do the talking.

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Plugs: diana

it was a very fun day for me yesterday. i set out to lumpinee stadium to watch muay thai kickboxing. but before that, i had time to check out the supposedly best khao mun kai (chicken rice) in the city. the shop was called kaiton and i had some trouble locating it. i walked up and down an entire street of foodstalls but none had english names written anywhere. finally, i decided the biggest chicken stall would have to be kaiton. i was right.

the staff even donned bright pink t-shirts with a chicken logo at the back haha… the khao mun kai was very cheap at 30 baht. it came along as a plate of rice with chicken on top (same case as in singapore), with a bowl of chicken soup and some very spicy sauce.

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Plugs: alwyn

i barely got any sleep today. found out that the buffet breakfast here is really sucky; i left within 15 minutes. there is startlingly little variety of food available for a nice 4-star place like this. in fact narai hotel, the 3-star hotel i stayed at the last time i came to bangkok, offered a much better buffet breakfast. i’m thinking i should forgo breakfast altogether to have longer sleeping hours.

realised i really should have done a more thorough research before embarking on this trip. got too carried away about making the trip that i hadn’t planned much on what to actually do during my trip. for the first couple of days, i revisited the places from my previous trip here as well as doing some research, so that i could spend the remaining days exploring new places.

this afternoon, i went to pantip plaza opposite my hotel to buy a longer LAN cable for my laptop, so that i may surf the net in bed. the sales staff there were extremely friendly to someone who was just buying a cheap 110-baht cable. this guy came over when he saw me looking at the cables. and when i couldn’t decide whether to buy the 5-meter or 10-meter long cable, he opened up the package and got a second guy to come over so that they could stretch out the whole cable from end to end, and i would be able to see the entire length. when it came to payment, the second guy escorted me all the way to the counter, and the cashier was suddenly all smiles too. it was as though i was buying tens of thousands of baht worth of products. excellent, excellent service. two thumbs up definitely.

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Plugs: Smiley, Veron, Elaine Tan, tktan, sparkie, Alan Lee, Carrie Tan, alwyn, melvin

hi people, it’s me blogging from bangkok! my blog entries done here would be extra detailed because my mum would be reading these to keep track of me. i didn’t really get to do much today because it took quite a while to get settled down here, and by then it was already pretty late.

my bro and mum dropped me off at redhill MRT station today, where i made my own way to changi. along the way, i chatted with jishun via sms. it was a pleasant surprise that he contacted me because i haven’t heard from him in ages. told him i was going to bangkok alone and unlike most people, he actually agreed that it was a great idea.

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Plugs: vinsion, Veron, alwyn, bro and mum, breakme_if_u_dare, giantemu