Bangkok ~ Shopaholic's Paradise

Yesss, I'm back from the land of super cheap clothes, speeding bright pink cabs & tuk-tuks and glorious Tom Yam!!

I'm broke but happy :) Got such a lot of stuff, all steals!! I packed minimal for this trip and even included an empty travelling bag coz I know for sure I'll be returning home with double, maybe triple loads of stuff :P

Yaacob and I started our trip on an early Thursday morning. Went to LCCT, checked in, had breakfast and waited to board the plane. I was sitting there, wishing time will fly by quickly so that I could board the aircraft and escape the noisy waiting hall with irritating announcements made over an extremely loud speaker. Why do the airport management allow such awful announcements to be made, I'll never know. Why they use speakers that are deafening and cracking, will remain a mystery. I just hope I'd never hafta be in that hall again with those awful announcements booming over the awful speakers every 2 minutes.

We finally boarded the aircraft after about 15-20 minutes. I slept all the way to Bangkok. Didn't wake to eat or drink. I woke up only when we were about to land.

The new Bangkok Airport ~ Suvarnabhumi Airport...

After clearing immigration, we got inside a cab to get to our hotel. I must say, this hotel is super fantastic!! Really, it is!! But the same can't be said about our cabbie. He seemed a little confused over where we told him to drive us to [the communication barrier didn't help] and took us to Siam Paragon. We told him "No, no, NOT Siam Paragon, we want to go to Siam @ Siam Hotel!!"

In the end, after a detour, we finally managed to reach the hotel.

Friendly hotel staff greeted us the moment we stepped outta the cab. They collected our luggage and told us it will be taken to our room. A very friendly lady then proceeded to bring us into the hotel to check in, giving us a short fam trip on the hotel as we went. She showed us where we're gonna have breakfast every morning, explained to us where the spa is located then took us to the lobby, which is on the 12th floor to check in. After checking in, she informed us where the pool is and where the other restaurants and lounges of the hotel are. She then took us to our room, and showed us our amenities, etc. Truly hospitable. Our luggage arrived as she finished speaking.

Before I start on what I did for the trip, I must gush about the hotel coz it's just so damn nice!! The entire hotel smells of lavender! Imagine that!!

Ok, lemme start with our room [bear with me here ;P]. The room is spacious with really nice deco, clean toilet and a huge beg with two, TWO comforters. Great, right??!! The design of the room is really creative and the color scheme is consistent with the entire hotel.
This is the exterior of the hotel. Very designer-feel with unique deco e.g. the BIG FOOT... Apparently, this hotel, which is just 1 year old, is the first design hotel in Bangkok and the entire hotel, its furnishings and deco were carefully designed and selected. The wooden pillar at the side of the hotel entrance was apparantly made from timber from a railway. Cool, huh??

The ground floor houses the cofffee house, Party House One [where we have our daily breakfast] and the concierge. A huge book shelf with unique deco greeted me as I stepped in. There's a giant arty-farty chair near the entrance and huge arty paintings hung from the walls.

The Party House One Restaurant's furniture is superbly unique. There are different kinds of chairs, the bar counter is really unique and the cutleries, mugs, etc are all super nice!

There's a lounge the same floor as the lobby. The pool is there too. Check out the super cool lobby...

The nicest part of the hotel:- THE POOL!!! Just look at the pics and you'll know what I mean...

The 16th floor, where our room was located. The corridors are clean and smell of lavender. From that floor, we can see the National Stadium clearly.

Okies, I'm done showing off my super nice hotel. Now, back to the trip. After we freshen up, we went down to the restaurant on the ground floor to have late lunch. The Tom Yam soup was good! Actually most of the food were super delicious.

After that, we asked the concierge on where to get a nice Thai massage nearby and we're given a map and directions on how to find the massage place. We walked out of the hotel and sort of explored the surroundings. We discovered that the National Stadium BTS station was less than 2 minutes away and the entire MBK, Siam Discovery, Siam Centre, Siam Paragon area was less than 500m away. Talk about strategic location.

We walked and walked and saw many quaint little boutiques [they remind me of the ones in Japan] and finally spotted a sign which says 'Thai Massage'. We went into the place and had a 2-hour Thai massage. Bad move! The place was narrow, small and not very clean. I was itching all over but the time the massage was over >:(

After the massage, we hurried back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. Yaacob had a surprise in store for me and he told me we hadta get ready by 8pm. Prior to this trip, he told me to pack a nice dress for his surprise. I sorta guessed he's taking me for a nice dinner but I never thought it's THIS NICE!!!

He took me to The Dome at The State Tower, to this restaurant called Breeze. This is a fancy place which also houses Lebua, a luxury hotel with only suites [not rooms]. At Breeze, the view was breathtaking. It had to be as this restaurant is the highest outdoor seafood restaurant in Asia. I can see almost the entire Bangkok night view and the Chao Phraya river. Breeze's ambience was super romantic, dim with only candles to light the place. The service was impeccable. I wish I could say the same about the food though. I mean, not to say it wasn't delicious. It's just that I wasn't expecting to have rice and chicken together with my wine. They serve Asian fusion food and the menu was specially designed for the dishes to go with rice. If I knew we're gonna have rice, I'd not have ordered the wine. The wine though, was superb.

After dinner, we went up to Sirocco and Sky Bar to have a look. Couldn't take much pics as security there was strict and we're only allowed to take pics from certain areas. Sombong, right? Take pics also have to go through stringent rules.

We started the following day early. Had breakfast then headed to Chatuchak. OMG!! The amount of stalls were crazy. We didn't know the way and just walked here and there and in every corner, there were lots and lots of stalls selling clothes, accessories, home deco, paintings, even animals!! It was crazy!! The heat was crazy too!! By mid-day, we decided we've had enough of Chatuchak. I was quite disappointed as I couldn't find what I wanted there. The merchandise there seemed to be the same as a few years back during my previous trip to Bangkok. After lunch, we went back to the hotel to unload our shopping before deciding where to go to next.

We decided to go to a tailor after Chatuchak and asked the concierge to recommend a good one. I'm really happy with their recommendation, Embassy Fashion House. Their service and workmanship were really good. They provide free pickup and drop-off. And serve coffee, tea and even beer when we go for fittings.

I decided to make a classic white shirt and a pair of black pants. I've never been able to find shirts and pants that fit me well so here's my chance of finally owning these. Yaacob went for a sports jacket. The people at Embassy were dressed smartly in tailored shirts, vests and pants. When we got there, they showed us catalogues to help us decide what kinda design we wanted. Then, they took us around to select the material. After that, they took our measurements. Everything was done professionally. I was impressed.

After that we wanted to go to Pratunam and Embassy's driver dropped us there. After walking through Pratunam market, we crossed the road to Platinum Fashion Mall. It was a shopper's paradise. The amount of shops in there selling all kinds of fashion items was crazy. I regretted going to Chatuchak. Should have gone to Platinum Mall first. The items were cheap [if you buy 3 items or more, you get the wholesale price] and there's air-condition!! I think I spent the most in that mall.

After that, we went to Suan Lum Night Bazaar, even though it was drizzling. The mean tuk-tuk driver initially agreed on 150baht to get us there and in the end, when I handed him two 100baht notes, he refused to give me my change back and argued that he wanted 200 baht. Grrrr... But we let it be coz we never know if he knows some sort of magic and put a spell on us. I believe that we should never offend anyone in Thailand coz we'd never know who we offend. What if they practise some dark magic and put a curse on me?? I've heard about a lot of these kinda cases in Thailand. So, better be safe than sorry.

This place is full of designers selling their creations especially t-shirts. After walking around for about an hour, I couldn't walk any more. Too tired. Hungry. Hadta haul heavy giant plastic bag around filled with all my shopping. I decided to sit at a little cafe while Yaacob continued his shopping spree. I ordered an oyster omelette and a coke and regretted it. Shouldn't have ordered the oysters. I'm quite paranoid about taking food that's not in a real clean restaurant in Thailand. What if I get food poisoning? I've heard horror stories from people about really bad food poisoning after consuming food from street vendors, etc. But at that point of time, I was really hungry. Close to having a bad gastric attack. So, I prayed hard that the oysters were fresh and ate the omelette. Ok ok, maybe I didn't EAT the entire omelette. I just picked on it and nibbled here and there.

Finally, Yaacob appeared and we hopped into a cab to go back to the hotel. After I showered, I think I was so exhausted I passed out a bit on the bed [ok, a bit drama I know, but it's true!! I was watching TV while Yaacob was showering and then, all of a sudden, I heard Yaacob talking to me. So I musta passed out...]. My tummy was feeling uncomfortable and I felt a lil sick coz of the exhaustion and also coz I didn't have enough food and water that day. I have to eat on time. Really have to or else I pay for it [read: super duper bad GASTRIC!!]. Yaacob ordered a burger [room service] and shared it with me. After that, we watched 'Conan, the Barbarian' [super lame movie] showing on TV, and I fell asleep halfway thru...

On the 3rd day, we decided to relax a bit after our gruelling shopping spree the day before. We woke up, had breakfast and chilled at the hotel. We then headed out to Siam Discovery to look-see-look-see at the entire area [Siam Centre, Siam Paragon, etc]. These malls are more like the ones from home [1-Utama, Pavilion, etc]. We had lunch in Siam Paragon and window-shopped there [not worth to buy stuff there coz I can get it here as well with almost the same price].

Then, we walked over to MBK where I finally found belts that fit me! Yeay!!! I got a bag for a really good price too!! Super happy. Yaacob got some t-shirts. We didn't stay there long [MBK reminded me of Sungei Wang] coz we need to go to the tailor's for fitting and the driver's gonna come pick us up soon.

I am truly amazed at how fast the tailor works. My shirt and pants were ready. They just had to do a fitting to make minor adjustments. Yaacob's jacket were not so ready. There were no sleeves. Just a cut-out of the jacket for him to try on so that they can have a look at how it fits him and how to make it fit well.

After the fitting, we asked them to drop us off at Je-Ngor Kitchen [recommended by Pat, our Thai agent] for dinner. The food was great. Tom Yam Gung [heavenly], vegetables, crab meat with curry sauce and rice. Such a tasty meal for only 780 baht. After that, we wanted to go for a massage and the waitress helped hail a cab for us and helped told the cabbie where we wanted to go.

We went to Healthland Spa [also recommended by Pat. Her recommendations are great!! Really super] and had a 2-hour food massage for only 500baht. The entire spa ambience was warm, peaceful, clean and relaxing. The massage was good and at the end of it, they wipe off the cream from our feet with warm towels before washing their hands and giving us a head and shoulder massage. My left shoulder was aching and that really helped to ease the pain. Sorry I didn't manage to take any pics coz I was too busy relaxing. Check out their website. It's exactly like in the website's pics.

On the 4th day, we chilled by the pool in the morning and lazed around til noon. Then, we took our own sweet time to get ready for a final round of shopping as Platinum Mall. I wasn't feeling that great that day but still, hadta tahan for the sake of more cheap buys.

On our way back to the hotel from Platinum Mall, we encountered the rudest cabbie in our entire trip in Bangkok. He didn't get the destination correctly and drove us to Siam Square. We told him we wanted to go to Siam @ Siam Hotel and he blew up. He was really angry and muttered that we didn't tell him correctly where we wanted to go and wanted to just leave us there. We refused to get off the cab and made him drive us to the hotel. We tried to show him the way but he stubbornly refused to listen to us and in the end, we got stuck in a really bad traffic jam and hadta make 1 big turn before reaching the hotel. If he'd listened to us, we'd have gotten to the hotel without the jam and the entire unnecessary drive around the area. I was very glad to step outta that cab. Halfway through the jam, I thought of just paying him and getting off and walk back to the hotel but at that moment, it began to rain so the idea didn't seem very feasible anymore.

We had dinner at the hotel [the food never failed to satisfy me. Every dish I ordered in that hotel was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.] before going to the tailor's 1 last time to pick up our clothes.

My shirt and pants fitted really well. I'm happy. Money well spent. Worth it!!!

We then went for a final massage. 2-hours Thai massage for only 450baht!! Where to find such cheap massage in KL??? Not to say the ambience and quality of the massage was lousy. It was great. Wish there's such a place in KL. Then, I'd go for a massage everyday. Hahaha...

After all the relaxation, it's time to get to work back at the hotel. PACK! Gosh, I hate the end of trips where I need to pack. Damn stressed. Hadta figure out how to fit in so many things in just 1 suitcase!! Urgh...

In the end, I managed to put all my clothes [rolled them up to save space] in the extra Nike travelling bag I brought and half of what I bought into my suitcase and the rest in Yaacob's suitcase. He took out 90% of his stuff and packed them into his Nike backpack to make space for me. Sigh... Dunno why my stuff takes up so much space! They're all quite tiny items.

After all the packing, I went to sleep, tired.

The next day, we woke up early, had breakfast [I miss the breakfast there!!] then got ready to leave for the airport. Better be at the airport early. Can walk around in there.

Was quite sad to say bye to the hotel and their friendly staff ;'(

Got to the airport and checked in. I was feeling quite proud of myself coz I still had a 1000baht note in my purse. Hehe... I gleefully gave myself a mental pat on the back for having some money left from this trip [coz from most of my previous trips.... hmmm... ok, let's not talk about my previous trips... this entry is about THIS trip!!] :) Then, the airport check-in guy hadta burst my happy bubble. My luggage was overweight by 6kg!!!! And I hadta pay 990baht for the excess baggage!!!!!!!!

Gasp!!!!

Aaaaaarrggghhh!!!!!

There goes my last 1000baht :'(

It's not fair to ask Yaacob to share in on this coz I know all of them are my stuff. His stuff were all in this backpack, which was slung at his shoulder to be carried on-board the plane. SIGH!!!

So, I was left with 10 baht, which really wasn't a big deal. 10baht don't count as having any money left in this trip!! :(

Okay, let's not dwell on that...

So, we then walked around the airport to kill time. Yaacob bought a Ralph Lauren polo top for only about 2000baht plus. Such a steal!!! Seeing that the same top will cost double of that amount in KL. Glad that he's able to get this top at such a cheap price. It looks really good :)

After that, it was time for us to board the plane to go home.

Bye bye Bangkok!! Bye cheap shopping, good food and great massages!!! I'll miss all of youuuu....

From this trip, I've discovered that:

1. Thai people are generally really friendly, smiley and hospitable [except for the weird few who aren't, like the mean tuk-tuk driver and the angry cab driver]
2. Siam @ Siam Hotel is the best!!!
3. Trust Pat to give good recommendations on food, shopping and massage in Bangkok
4. Air Asia is really crappy ex-BKK coz practically everything in the menu is sold out, food and drinks!!!
5. Next time, should make conscious effort to take more pics, esp on the nice restaurants and massage places [sorry I didn't take more pics this trip. Too busy shopping and enjoying the food and massages!!]

Can't wait for my next trip to the City of Angels!!!