A new day. We were going to Four Faced Buddha, at Erawan (luxury shopping mall) and Chatuchak Weekend Market. Last day to go to Chatuchak as it’s opened on Fri, Sat & Sun only. Duh me I didn’t know it was a weekend market and told Car on Saturday nite that we still had Monday in BKK. Alvin had suggested that I brought a hat, a cloth and sunscreen to Chatuchak.
The receptionist informed that we would just spend about 10 – 15minutes at the Four Faced Buddha coz it was very smoky. I wondered if I should wear spec or contact lenses. It sucks when smoke or dust gets into the eye while wearing contact lenses, I could be crying for minutes and unable to open eyes yet couldn’t close the eyes. Common sense prevailed and I wore specs instead. At least I’ll have protection from the joss stick smoke :)
Both Chai and Nat are Buddhists while I.. *scrunch mouth* not so religious in performing whatever Buddhists do while praying. Praying should come from the heart and I don’t want to pollute the air by burning joss stick just so my message to the Buddhas reach faster or ever at all. Can’t the Gods hear us without burning paper or wood, without killing other animals?
When we reached Erawan, we walked to the ground floor and Nat brought us to the temple. We saw a group of people praying at the corner.
Nat gestured, “Here we are!”
I looked around. Where is the temple?
“Neh,” she pointed her chin towards the people praying.
“Ha?! Just like that?” Chai asked in disbelief.
I could hardly belief it. The sign did read Four Faced Buddha and there was a table of joss stick, flowers, candles and other offerings. Inside the gated temple, there was the same thing.
The lady said, “Same price, same price.”
She meant her stall had the same price as inside. I tried to lengthen my body to see the prices listed inside but my eyesight wasn’t powerful enough. I could barely see the numbers.
They bought the stuff from the stall outside and I helped them to carry the stuff in plastic bags now. I didn’t buy any.
They said if you pray once and your wishes came true, you must come back to pray in a year.
I wanted to find my camera and handphone. I hoped I catched the damn baddie. I hoped he suffered the same fate, his camera and handphone stolen.
Of course I didn’t pay all this. It’s bad to wish bad things to happen to others, especially when you pray to God.
Visitors must pray, offer joss stick, candle and flower glands at each face of Buddha clockwise. I didn’t know we had to follow clockwise. I prayed anti-clockwise because there were less people on the right side than left side.
After my 3rd prayer, Chai asked, “You prayed opposite? Must pray clockwise.”
“Aiyo!”
“Nevermind, just pray again lor.”
So I went another round, this time clockwise.
There were dancers facing 1 side of the Buddha. Weird, shouldn’t they dance around since this Buddha has 4 faces?! Wouldn’t other faces get jealous? Just kidding, Four Faced Buddha.
Read while blogging this that you need to pay the dancers for this performance. There’s also a donation box at the entrance, you can donate as much as you like.
Other links:
Erawan Shrine – Bangkok, Thailand – VirtualTourist.com
Around Bangkok- Four Faced Buddha of Erawan Shrine
The Four Faced Buddha at Bangkok
TourismThailand – Around Bangkok – Four-Faced Buddha of Erawan Shrine
Pictures – Google: Four Face Buddha (some spelt with “Faced”)
After praying here, we went to Chatuchak via train (Mo Chit station). It was a *gasp* tin/aluminium roof huge, huge area. We would never be able to see all the stalls there.
View Larger Map
Apparently, there were maps available in info kiosk! Why didn’t we see this? Aiyo.. it would make things easier to navigate. Thousands of shops here! Some selling the same thing, some in the same price, some cheaper.
bangkok-city – Chatuchak Weekend Market, Bangkok, Thailand (layout)
Into-Asia – Chatuchak Market Bangkok (Weekend market)
bangkok – Chatuchak Market Bangkok (Weekend market)
bangkok-photos – Chatuchak Market
Guide and travel tips for Bangkok’s weekend market Chatuchak (Jatujak) says:
If you are strict supporter of animal rights etc or if you just do not like to see animals in what is possibly not the most healthy of environments, then you may want to avoid the animal section of the market. There is nothing bad happening it is just that some of the animals look to be in terrible shape and most are not in the best of environments.
WTH?! Nothing bad happening? Oh, the steaming hot weather is not a bad thing, it’s sauna treatment for the animals. They are also in bad shape because some of them are sick and environment is just not fully air-cond with ample space to move around? It’s animal abuse! Did any animal rights organization complain about this?
If I were to open any shop here, I’d open a fruit and cold drinks cafe! I think ice packs would sell well too :D
Luckily I wore spaghetti top and skirt here. Couldn’t find a place to wax legs! Got myself a shaver (3 sticks inside) at around 40 baht only in Family Mart. Cheap.
Why? We didn’t go to any hot shot shopping malls, I thought those malls should have manicure, pedicure and all those waxes services but we didn’t have time yet.
Here, we saw the same white beach tops!!! The opening price? 150 baht! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Here it was so much cheaper and we hadn’t even bargained!! We already had bought a lot previously and didn’t want to buy more but if I came here again, I’d buy from this shop! I’d rather save 100 baht in the hot sun per piece than buy at higher price in air-cond. Once I’d bought this though, I’d leave :p It was shooting, burning hot!
Saw some MAC, Nars and Dior cosmetics. So tempted to buy some eyeshadows. Were they real? From warehouse sales or just fakes? 200 baht only!
Bikini sets were at 150 – 300 bahts, some at 400 bahts but that’s the price slapped onto the hanger. You can still bargain – it’s expected.
Bought a brown tank top and mini-shorts in stretchable cloth with pink-white-blue stripe trims (as shown by the side-headed old Caucasion by pulling both ends apart) at 150 baht.
Slippers at 79 – 150 baht, depending on designs and how many pairs you buy.
Hairbands at 99 baht :D I got a colourful knit scrunchy.
Earrings can be in 3 for 100 baht (same price at some shops and stalls here) to 5 pairs for 100 baht. I didn’t find any shops selling 10 pairs for 100 baht but Car claimed there were the previous time she went..
There were home deco, lightings, porcelain, crystals, homewares, fake birds, food, junk food, clothes, collectibles, aromatheraphy, gifts – some are actually wholesale and you need to take order and the products will be shipped to you later. Saw a shop where a lady was painting :) very bright birds and a guy was asking her to paint a potrait.
There was a toilet with entrance fee.
We bought another fried vege thing (same as the 1 we had on the 1st day) to let Nat try. This wasn’t as crispy as the 1st one. The pineapple was very sweet :)
Here, some of the fruits were more expensive. Usually the small coconut drinks were 20 baht. In outskirts or quiet area in BKK, it could be 10 – 15 baht only according to Alvin. The small coconuts (about the size of an adult palm cupped) are sweeter than the big coconuts.
The fruit juice here was more expensive and less tasty than Khao San Road.
Chai was smarter, she wore a almost backless top. The next time I go there, I’ll just wear the thinest and least cloth top and shorts. I supposed you could just buy a top there and change to the new one if you were soaked in sweat :) There were some shops with air-cond but it was still hot. Certain areas had the wet market feel (and smell).
However, Nat had complained repeatedly, “The t-shirts will shrink!! My bf bought all couldn’t wear anymore and he passed to me.” Now, that was a good thing, yes, if you have the same taste? ;)
Some of the t-shirts can be sold at 99 baht but if you buy 3/++, you can bargain up to 70 – 80 baht. Funny when the promoters had speakers and they were shouting, “CHEAP!! VERY CHEAP! HERE GOOD! THERE *pointing the opposite stall selling the same t-shirts* NO GOOD!”
We left for air-cond and next stop was another shopping mall.
Saw a Japanese restaurant with a huge bowl of mee? The food price was ok, not too cheap or expensive. When the food arrived, we all stared at the HUGE bowl. Like what we joked earlier, the ingredients reached 1/2 of the bowl only, not overflowing like the ad. There was no egg either.
The other dish was better – another noodle that tasted good. Forgot what it was already or the restaurant name. Heh, there was a cute logo and the top floors were selling home, wood crafts, “real” pashimina shawls, candles, gifts in bulk.
Nat wanted to get a candle wood piece and the Chinese lady didn’t want to budge any discount. FInally as we left, the lady asked where we were from and Nat said, “Malaysia.”
Then she said, “I’m from China, Hainan.”
Hah! Nat exclaimed, “I’m from Hainan also!” Actually her ancestors were from Hainan.
Aiya, if only Nat had declared herself, “I’m a Hainan” on her forehead, she wouldn’t need to bargain! :D
I searched high and low for the colourful braided belt but they were cheapest in Chatuchak or wholesale malls 150 baht. Here, they were 200 to 300 baht!
At a corner, Nat found the shop that she bought biscuits like dried fruits and I found the crepes in 2 flavours (colourings too). Grabbed the big size packet of fried durian chips for Alvin. He had wanted AS MUCH AS I COULD carry so I thought it must be very delicious. No durian smell though, disappointed.
For our last night here, Alvin suggested Chinatown or Suan Lum Night Market. Since Chinatown was much further away, we decided to go to Suan Lum.
I wanted to go up to the rooftop and take pictures of BKK lights at night. Unfortunately, Nat had burst her budget, my camera was stolen and we still needed money for our last day. Nat still wanted to go to gay bars but we were 2 against 1 haha.
The tuk-tuk driver immediately agreed to the rate that our hotel tourist guide had given and we hopped on. He pretended to be charming and friendly. He asked, “Where you want to go there?”
“Dinner.”
“Hah? For what?”
I gestured by cupping fingers together in a point, “Food.”
“Seafood?”
“No.”
Still, he passed by a dark alley without anyone – it was backlane and it was a bit scary. Then he stopped at a seafood restaurant.
“No, we want Suan Lum.”
“No, you say seafood. This good.”
We insisted to go to Suan Lum.
“There gangster.”
“Suan Lum.”
He reluctantly turned back angrily and his personality changed from Jekyll to Hyde. He deliberately dropped us off in the other end of Suan Lum market instead of the food area, knowing we wanted to eat. Jerk. If I had camera, I’d take a snapshot of his face and post it online.
We walked around the place to the food court and the place looked quiet, unlike Chatuchak. The food court was wide and cool (temperature), which was great because we had enough of Chatuchak hotness. There were 1 row of Thai, Western, Chinese, Japanese food and another row of drinks including all sorts of beer, fruit juice.
I had another fruit juice again, it tasted better than the 1 I had in Chatuchak but not as cheap as Suan Lum :) Almost as good as Suan Lum, I ordered another for all to share.
Nat ordered a whole steamed fish – fresh and tasty, about 500 baht, She kept saying, “So cheap!” I ordered German, Thai and another sausage. They were so so, nothing to shout about. Chai ordered a salad. We could barely finish our dinner..
There were performances by a band and alternating with current Top songs too. Pretty loud that we moved table to the other side so that we could chat.
After that we walked around the other side and there were more people here, albeit not till you can’t walk. It had open area with rows of fashion accessories, t-shirts with slogans, deco pieces and food stalls. Found 1 pair of earring at 10 baht finally! :)
Alvin had insisted, “You must eat coconut ice cream in Suan Lum.”
There were some shops offering massages – foot and whole body but Nat didn’t want, “Who knows if they are qualified?” Chai and i had wanted to go for massages badly but we couldn’t leave Nat walking alone.
We saw the same couple (yesterday, tuk-tuk) being massaged. Eck.
I didn’t really set up to eat coconut ice cream. Not a big fan of coconut flesh. Just love the drink. Bumped into the stall and we had 1 while Chai went to the toilet.
As we ate the ice cream in 1/2 cut coconut shell, the seller offered all 3 of us a small plastic cup of coconut drink, “Free flow.”
“Wah so good?” Nat and I looked as each other.
Chai burst the bubble, “Of course la, you already paid for the whole coconut!”
“Yeah wo.” We helped ourselves to another cup of coconut drink ahah.
The opposite of the market was other restaurants and a public toilet.
On the way back, we saw a few people coming out of a building in red t-shirts. Some were wearing bandana and 1 was holding a flag. Nat or Chai commented, “Oh, the protestors.”
We were surprised that we didn’t see them earlier based on the reports by newspapers & internet. Which goes to show that not whole of Bangkok was in danger of protests (a good thing) and you can’t believe everything you read.
Passing along the darkened buildings (off office hours), Nat suddenly exclaimed, “YOU SEE?!”
We asked, “See what?”
“Those girls.”
Oh, she meant the prostitutes standing by the roadside. I saw 1 yesterday already.
Once back at the hotel, I searched for entrance rules to Grand Palace. I had read somewhere that it didn’t allow slippers, short sleeve/sleeveless and shorts in! I only brought a pair of slippers and that was what I was wearing. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any sneakers or closed-toe shoes in Chatuchak or malls that I liked.
Finally I found tripadvisor.com – Temple Dress Code Bangkok
*relief* I didn’t have to buy closed-toe shoes.
0 Responses to “Bangkok trip IV – hot, HOT day”