Bangkok 2014 | Along the Chao Phraya

On 3rd day in Bangkok, we went for the boat ride along the famous Chao Phraya river.  After breakfast, we walked along the Pratunam street to Siam BTS station.  We walked for almost 25 minutes to the sky train station. 

The pedestrian bridge where we started to walk all the way to Siam train station

Nice bridge walkway, stretching all the way to Siam station

The King picture in front of Royal Police HQ

The police HQ

Siam station

The famous Buddha figurine where Hong Kong star, Jackie Chan said to visit when he comes to Bangkok

Along the way, we looked around the shopping mall.  Indeed Bangkok is packed not with shopping malls, but also hotels and sidewalk hawkers.  Full of bustle and hustle of a big city life.

Just under the train station

Chao Phraya river

One of the boat services

Sheraton hotel on the right side

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel where king used to entertain guests

Holy Rosary church

Wat Arun, the most visited temple in Bangkok

Wat Arun also called Temple of Dawn has the highest pagoda here

We bought a day pass train ticket (THB150 per person) to the Saphan Taksin stop for the boat ride.  The Central Pier is just below the BTS station.  We bought an unlimited boat fare which cost us THB150 per person, that we can use the whole day and stop and jump from the boat to any pier.  There are 5 pier stops, but we only stopped at one of the piers; the Tha Tien pier where we dropped off and ventured by foot to the places of interests.

The Tha Tien market, where you can find hawker food, souvenirs and crafts on sales is near the pier.  Across the road to Tha Tien market is Wat Pho where you can see the reclining Buddha for THB100 (about RM10) but we did not go in. 

We continued our walk to Museum of Siam, but unfortunately the museum was closed on Monday.  So we only able to take picture of the museum from outside.  We planned to walk back to the Tha Tien pier but was stopped by a tuk tuk driver who recommended us to go to other places of interest. For THB100, he brought us to Wat Traimit Wittayam and souvenir shop. Wat Traimit Wittayam is under renovation so we only took pictures outside the temple and in the souvenir shop, we bought many snacks for souvenirs.

After that we went back to Tha Tien pier to take the boat to the end of the boat ride and then gone back to the first pier, the Central Pier before took our train back to Siam train station.

Entrance from the train station

As Siam Paragon shopping mall is just next to the Siam train station, we decided to hunt for beef noodle there. Heard that the Nuer Koo's beef noodle is one of the best in Bangkok, so we decided to try it out.

Guess who I met in Siam Paragon from Madame Tussauds Bangkok? ;)

Located at the 4th floor, Nuer Koo has a relaxing and comfortable dining setting and the recommended dish is its beef soup noodle.

A cute cow greeting us in Nuer Koo

On our table

Hubby's beef noodle

Beef in red sauce soup

My minced and sliced pork noodle in clear soup

Sauces for you to dip on

I tried its pork noodle with clear soup, which was alright.  Indeed the beef tasted tender and delicious.  We do not mind coming back again.

After filling up our tummies, we have a walk around Siam Paragon before going back to our hotel.  We did not buy anything at all in Siam Paragon.  Too high end.  *wink*  But I did get to do my shopping on 3rd day in the evening. 

So with more stuff to bring and pack, we are off to our next destination the next afternoon.....coming up in my next posting!!

Food hunting on Day 2

We did have some good Thai food on the 2nd day after our visit to the Wat Mahathat.  After spending an hour in the Wat, our day tour guide brought us to this restaurant which is opposite the Wat.  The name is called One Love Baan.

We ordered a set menu, which costs us THB1500 plus drinks.

Tom yum - both of us agreed that the seafood tom yum taste good

Mixed vegetables cooked in oyster sauce

This plate of vegetable and chicken is more flavourish than the first place.  More pepper but taste good as well

Soup noodle with vegetable

The so called noodle looked like kuaw tiaw.  I like this dish the most

Green curry with lots of green chillies in the soup

At night, we went to the opposite side of the Pratunam for some road side hawker food.  Very crowded with patrons along the sidewalk. 

We ended up with a noodle stall.  Hubby is missing his noodle.  Lol!

We ordered 3 plates of dry noodle as the portion was pretty small.  Not enough for my hubby.  Tasted good, especially the char siew.  THB120 for 3 bowls of noodle.

Our dried noodle with char siew and wanton



Ayutthaya | Into the time

After floating market and elephant camp, we headed to Ayutthaya which is about 2.5 hours drive from Bangkok. Once the capital of Siam and regarded as the greatest city in Asia, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The city was founded in 1350, and the people was advanced and powerful till in 1767 when it was destroyed by the rampaging Burmese armies.  They destroyed most parts of the city.

Wat Mahathat, these red temples speak of decadent times of yore.  The most photographed image in Ayutthaya must be the Buddha head that set within the intertwining roots of a fig tree.



the famous Buddha head

Yours truly posing at the Wat where at the back sat a Buddha statue

Most statues are headless as ruined in the past

A slightly slanted structure

The remains of the Wat

A very warm afternoon. So aren't I glad that I bought a straw hat from the floating market and ate "Ais Potong". 3 flavours to choose from; coconut, red bean and durian but guess what flavour I choose?? *wink*

Bangkok 2014| Floating market and souvenir shop

I have a busy day yesterday.  Too many photos to download and undecided on which photos to be uploaded.  It was a great trip so far as I seen and learnt many things visiting Bangkok.  Different lifestyle, different food and culture.  Lives are simple and people is practically shy and friendly. 

We chartered a day guide cum driver to bring us around yesterday.  THB3000 total to go to floating market and Ayutthaya.  We started our journey at 820am (local time) and reached the boat jetty around 10.00am.  We paid THB5000 for the private boat to bring us to the floating market and souvenir shop.

  

We went to Damnoensaduak Floating Market which took us about an hour boat ride, but along the way we stopped by the souvenir and coconut shop and a Buddhist temple.



Some shots of the market

Our boat and wooden houses along the canal

Stalls on both sides of the canal where sellers calling to tourists to buy their stuff

Souvenir and coconut candy shop

Beautiful temple where you can feed the fishes for free and buy souvenir for good luck

We also gone for the elephant ride which included in the package. So, my very first personal ride on the big animal. About 30 minutes ride. Felt funny riding and looking down on elephant if you asked me.

Ooops. Does it hurt when I stepped on you, Ms Elly??

We buy a lot of souvenirs and photographs yesterday.  Once on holiday, you could not run away from not buying your holiday photographs and souvenirs right??? 

Bangkok 2014: Walk along Pratunam and Sukhumvit

Sawatdee ka!

Hubby and I arrived in the Land of Smiles around 4.45pm (local time in Thailand is 3.45pm).  Our flight from Sibu to KL was delayed for almost 30 minutes in the morning.

Nevertheless we reached LCCT around 1035am and we had almost 3 hours to spend before our afternoon flight to Don Mueang airport.

After checked into our beautiful hotel room in The Berkeley Pratunam, we went straight down to Sukhumvit street as hubby wanted to do his tux.  So we walked along the Pratunam street and caught a tuk tuk to Sukhumvit street.

For your info, Pratunam is a very busy area especially Petchaburi road which is amongst the hustle and bustle of Pratunam. Famous for fashion factory outlets, street markets, bazaars and armies of local vendors at road side. As for Sukhumvit, it is where the night lives are with clubs, bars, restaurants and shoppings lie. Just adjourning to Berkeley hotel is The Palladium World Shopping Mall. Too much to see on my first day!!

Palladium

Pratunam street market

Back to my tuk tuk ride. It was after 5pm local time so it was pretty jam on the road. My very first time sitting in tuk tuk. Nice experience if you dont mind the dust and wind blown on your face. Lol.

Hubby is looking for this Narin Couture who is one of the top 5 best tailor in the province and after walking for more than 20 minutes along the Sukhumvit, we managed to locate the shop.  Indeed the tailor is very impressive as graduated from France and is fluent in English, he has many loyal customers from around the world.  We spent almost an hour there and paid around RM2000 (THB20000) for the tux, which will be ready and mailed to our Malaysia address in few weeks time.

After the tailor, we were pretty hungry as it was almost 7pm local time and our lunch was in the aeroplane.  You know, you can expect much from food in the aeroplane.  We ended up with a stall selling chicken rice and noodle soup. 

The seller is not English literate, so we have to use sign language and pointing here and there to show him what we want.  At least we get the message across and we have our meals in no time.  I could not remember when the last time I ate my food right at the side of the road.  The road was pretty busy as it was Saturday and many tuk tuk, rented motorbikes and vehicles passing through.  Hubby had chicken rice (which is pretty tasty with the chilli sauce) while I were having its spicy kueh tiaw soup.

After our THB800 dinner, we walked some more along the Sukhumvit street before we catched a tuk tuk to bring us back to our hotel.  For the distance of 15 minutes, the tuk tuk charged THB150. 

We did not go straight to our hotel room, but walked some more along the Pratunam street, looking at the vendors selling food, clothing, décor and so forth.  We just hunt for food and we ended up with some meat sausage (THB10), and deep fried crickets and worms (THB20 per pack).  I like the crickets more as it tasted like crispy snack. 

Before we called it a night, we chilled out in the hotel bar by having beers.  When were the last time I drink beer?  I don't remember.  Planned to go for a massage, but we were too tired so we called it a night.  Today is another day of more walking and sight seeing.  :)

p/s: For more value, do not change your currency in airport as it is more expensive.  Change some in your country and then some over here.  That is what most foreigners do here! The currency exchange outlets here open till pretty late at night!

Flying soon + Holiday begins

Hi guys! *wink*

I am posting from LCCT here while waiting for my next flight which is departing at 2pm. 2 hours to spare.

If possible, I will update when ever I have time (and free WIFI) to do so as I am on my long overdue oversea vacation with dearest hubby. This is my first vacation of the year. There will be another holiday coming up in May but that one is with my kids. This round, it is only me and my dearest. Honeymoon, you can call it. *wink* 

I have packed my sunblock and swimsuit. And loaded up my camera and brought extra memory card. So I will try to snap good pictures of places that I am planning to go. There are few places in my agenda that I must go. I am sure we will have lots of fun sight-seeing, shopping and eating around during the one week holiday.

Will not be blog hopping much I guess. Hope you will miss me while I am away. Lol! Have a fabulous weekend, guys!

Ciao!

My temporary toy

My Samsung Galaxy SIII went "kong" yesterday afternoon.  It totally black out and even after pulling and putting back the battery, I were unable to switch the device on.  So, I guess there are some problems with the device.  Have been using it for almost 2 years.  Lately noticed that it was a bit lagging and hanging, but usually it will be alright after switching it on again. 

So, I went to Maxis yesterday evening to change my old plan.  Yes!  I got a new plan.  More into internet plan since I surfed a lot using my handphone than making calls.  Now I used more whatsapp and FB than making calls.  Maybe call my parents in Kuching once or twice a month, that is the longest conversation I made. 

I changed my Maxis plan and same time, I get myself a new Samsung smartphone.  Yes!  A new Samsung Note!  Limited edition with gold rose at the side of the casing.  But I am going to use it for a short time while my phone is in the "workshop".  So I am going to get myself acquainted with the new Samsung Note 3 for the time being before passing it to hubby.  Initially hubby wanted the new phone while I take the plan, but my phone pulled out on me first, so I have the chance to use it first. I actually like this new phone because of the bigger screen.  Great for surfing!   *wink*