hello people. i present to you version 9 of sparklette.net, titled “void“.

i try to incorporate my favorite things into my layouts to make them more personal. for example, almost every single one of my layouts features stars of some sort. now, i shall explain why i included the various elements that i did in the design.

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alrighty, i thought since i blogged all the way from my departure for bangkok right up to my last day in bangkok, i might as well blog about my return trip to singapore too.

i remember waking up early wednesday morning feeling all sad and blue as i had to leave bangkok in a couple hours’ time. the past one week would have seem short anywhere else. but in bangkok, it felt as though i had been there for a month! i realised i had already fallen in love with living in bangkok, eating from roadside stalls, commuting via public buses and skytrains.

i couldn’t even bear to leave my apartment. although it did take me a couple of days to get used to it, not having to fear ghosts at night, it had become a cozy and very comfortable home for me for the whole week.

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it’s my first time venturing out of bangkok throughout the entire trip.

ayutthaya was the ancient capital of thailand from the year 1350 to 1767. it’s a province outside bangkok, about 76 kilometers up north. when it flourished, it was said to be a very beautiful city. but after a burmese siege in 1767, the place had lain in ruins ever since. the purpose for my trip there was to see the ruins.

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the day started off with me ignoring the alarm clock and waking up late. had planned to go to ayutthaya for the day. but when i got to the lumpinee train station, it was already after noon. and if i caught the two-hour train ride to ayutthaya anyway, it would be about 4pm on arrival while most of the temples and ruins closed at 5pm. not much exploring left to do.

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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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