Bangkok trip I – browsing

Nat msg: We overnite @ my bf, then we go to Chai, to airport.

I didn’t want to overnite at any other place than my own bed and pillow – didn’t have enough sleep for whole week already though I had been determined to zzz as much as possible on the week before I travel to Bangkok (BKK). Just had lots of work and my mind kept wanting to do more (not of work but for own pleasure).. Wished the days were longer – or my body could stand longer hours and more hours to sleep. So I asked my brother and he agreed to fetch me to LCCT, just drop me off without waiting me depart, the brother!

In the morning, my brother fetched me to LCCT and there was no parking. There was a section with parking but it was blocked. Duh. The other gang – Chai & Nat were late!! Nat & her bf were lost and when I reached there, they still hadn’t picked up Chai! Oh oh.. *tap foot impatiently*

So I walked around LCCT – the intersection between local & international depart was under construction, there was a bit of burning smell & loud noise. There was Chocolate!

After walking inside LCCT thrice, I decided to sit next to the construction area. There were some people sleeping like bums.

There was nobody to guide me on passing the luggage over the scanner so initially I didn’t scan my luggage but went straight in and queued up at the check in area haha. Nobody stopped me either. Went back outside to scan my luggage and by the time I came back to the check in area, Chai & Nat had queued up there! Luckily, we checked in on time as the flight was delayed 30min.

The food inside LCCT (to public & passengers) were $$$. After check in, Sandwich was above RM10 in 1 of the coffee shops.

Tip: Don’t exchange money there at any airport. It’s cheaper to exchange at destination if you haven’t exchanged enough cash.

Bumped into my ex-colleague who were going to BKK at the same time as I :) He had no idea where he would be staying. I wouldn’t be so non-chalant if I were paying for my stay :p

AirAsia’s seating arrangement is not free seating anymore. Chai & Nat were placed together but I was seated at the back row of theirs and they get another Japanese looking man sitting beside them. So I asked him, “Are you with a group? Can I exchange my seat with you? I sit here,” I pointed at my row. He kindly nodded and we switched places :)

Suvarnabhumi Airport looked unfinished with the original slabs unpainted but there were a lot of shops selling chocolates, alcohol and yes, cosmetics & fragrances!

Earlier I had noted the pricing for some makeup and fragrance that I wanted so that I could compare with Bangkok’s airport. It’s cheaper here at a glance.

Almost at the exit, Chai bought a SIM at 99 Thai baht. It was Happy! The same company as Digi.

We took the taxi from the airport – don’t go for the taxi drivers standing right outside the gate as they charge higher. Get the ticket at the road side of airport (still within airport) and you pay the taxi driver when you reach the destination. There are plenty of BKK maps in the airport.

When we were in the taxi to our hotel, we wondered how our hotel would look like. Chai and I couldn’t wait to jump onto the huge white bed!

We searched from http://www.asiatravel.com/thailand.html which has the pricing & star rating in 1 page. We actually booked this room, the Superior Studio King:

Asia Travel – Citin Pratunam – Accommodation – Superior Studio King

Nat was more pessimistic from her past experiences of being conned by pictures online and found out the hotels she had booked were actually in red light districts. When we almost reached there, Chai saw the sign for Citin Pratunam and blurted in dismay, “Ee yea, our hotel is between the narrow streets ah.”

“Where? Where?” I had missed the sign.

tripadvisor – From Cheap Hotel at a Dangerous Road
That’s the street.

Right in front of the hotel. We looked up. It looked… so small. Just 1 block of green glass and white wall. Shocked. The hotel staff immediately came out and grabbed our bags. Inside, I saw the green lounge – several leaf green sofa and a flat screen.

The hotel staff saw that we had 3 people and gave us another room instead:

Asia Travel – Citin Pratunam – Superior Studio Twin

Damn. Got caught. We were quite tired that we didn’t think! 1 of us should’ve stayed outside! Shh..

They couldn’t give us the Superior Studio King because there wouldn’t be enough space to add another bed. :( We couldn’t jump into the big bed anymore.. There’s also no bathtub – not that we’d spend time in the bathtub but still!

Nat just plonked herself onto the extra bed, she offered to take it and decided to “nap”. We all knew her nap meant sleeping like a dead log.

The view outside from our hotel room looked like the 1 this guy took. No spectacular view, no rubbish bins and just wires and another older building.

So Chai and I went down in search of street food :D

The mangoes we bought along the street at our hotel was just 200 baht and there were 2 huge mangoes (skin sliced out already) and very thin seed. It was heaven! Sweet and cheap!!! We couldn’t finish it!

It’s at the corner top right of this pic but you can’t really see it from here. All the mangoes appeared to have green skin instead of yellow. It’s not opened all the time. Some of the stalls open during daytime but closes in the evening and other stalls take over.

We also saw a man selling fried vege food and they looked appetizing but we didn’t buy it then.

Both Chai and I saw a very colourful, pretty colours shorts and wanted to buy it. The lady explained smoothly, “I gib you discount. Buy 2 shorts 150 baht each.”

We searched for other colours but I couldn’t find 1 that I liked besides the 1st one. And that was the last piece!

Since Chai asked first, it was hers :(

As she was paying, the lady suddenly grabbed the shorts and told her, “I cannot sell you tis.”

“Why?” Chai was baffled.

“This is sample.”

“It’s ok, I want.”

“No no. See?” She pointed to the shorts inside out. “Broken. No no, cannot.”

“Aiya…” Then Chai put back the yellow shorts onto the stall.

“It’s ok, I give you discount still. 750 baht. Vely cheap.”

Chai reluctantly pad for the yellow bee shorts. I figured she liked the other shorts more and got this yellow bee because it was in promotion.

So many stretchable clothes! All in tight booths and stalls. Even the shopping malls have very small spaces each.

When we came to the same man selling the fried vege, we bought it and mixed it with spicy sauce. Nice.. Outside was crispy and inside was sticky. The only thing that was healthy was the green vege (had no idea what it was) and it was fried kao kao.

After the 3 of us had bathed, we asked the hotel receiptionist to recommend somewhere cheap and nearby.

The pretty petite girl named Kwan recommended a restaurant called Once Upon A Time. Cliche. It sounded like a Jet Li’s movie or those primary school compositions where every first paragraph started with “Open upon a time, there was…”

“Want something cheap. Is it expensive?” Nat asked.

“No no, it’s afford-dable.” She drew the way to the restaurant on the restaurant’s card and we walked over to the place. Had to go through dark streets and the entrance was like a jungle. If you’ve been to Naili’s in Selayang, you’ll know how this looks like. All the customers inside were Caucasions.

Nat thought, “Oh shit. The prices are going to be $$$.”

We had to squint at the menu. Lights were by candle and the other tall building nearby, which was Baiyoke – not sure which Baiyoke, there were 2 if not mistaken.

Dang! The prices were expensive. Still, we decided to eat there instead of going to other places. Famished. The prices were ok if you come from countries that have higher currency like US, UK but not for Malaysia. I imagine, it’s expensive for local Thais. It’s not that big deal or really special there anyway. The food was ok for that price. Lots of variety from local to Western food.

Environment was … maybe because I had been to such similar places in KL and Selangor. It had soothing music on all the time. There was not enough staff to take order and deliver the dishes or they were snotty to please the Caucasions and ignore the other races. The staffs’ uniforms were cool, the lady in silk asymmetric wrap.

We ate outside and didn’t even see inside.

We had a chicken wrap, tom yam soup (Tom Yam Goong) and papaya salad or kangkung (I had forgotten!). All spicy except for the tom yam soup. The total bill came up to 1000 baht! I had eaten better food with 1000 baht equivalent.

The service sucked. We had to call the staffs several times, only to be nodded once and then they just disappear.

History of Once Upon a Time, the restaurant. Some pictures in Food4Thot – Once Upon a Time

I took some pictures of the food & environment, which I’m unable to post up here.