Read about the previous days' stories here. Sorry it took me a while to write this.
Day 4
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| our new fave fast food outlet |
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| grilled chicken, chicken ball satay, and sticky rice |
The night market made us exhausted so the next morning we decided to start even more late. We had my bro's favourite take-away snack Five Star Chicken from Fortune Town Mall for brunch. We then took a MRT ride to Silom, continued with some BTS ride from Sala Daeng to Saphan Taksin station, which is connected to the boat harbour.
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| Sala Daeng station |
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| what welcome us at the harbour |
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| under the BTS railway |
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| the harbour |
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| Asiatique shuttle schedule |
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| the yellow Icon Siam's shuttle boat by the end of the dock |
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| we just have to pose together |
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| the view around the harbour |
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| finally, the red boat that will bring us to Asiatique |
We took the free shuttle boat ride to Asiatique in the South (our left side) and within 5 minutes we were already in the pier. The outdoor riverfront "mall" has restaurants and fashion shops, along with giant ferris wheel and haunted house jet coaster. It's a relaxing place to hang out at, enjoying sunset by the Chao Phraya river, and have seafood for dinner. But we had som tum instead.
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| arriving at Asiatique's pier |
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| a really nice pier, don't you think? |
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| again, another "must" wefie |
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| the main alley |
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| fashion boutique shops |
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| yet another selfie.. |
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| small amusement park here |
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| ferris wheel behind the haunted mansion |
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| the bazaar area |
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| yup they sell chicken, pork, and crocodile meat! |
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| there's the crocodile.. yum or yuck? |
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| the food tents bazaar |
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| the golden hour |
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| ...and the sun gonna set soon |
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| I forgot to ask why they have these sack-bearer statues here |
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| this is one of the best sunset-watching spot in Bangkok |
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| I always love lights that hanged above the street |
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| we had dinner at the restaurant on the right: So Far So Good |
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| gyoza, som tum, and pork belly, complemented by rosella ice tea |
We didn't stay long here. After dinner, we queued for the shuttle boat heading back to Saphan Taksin harbour, then we waited for another free shuttle boat to Icon Siam. The latter is one of the newest landmark shopping mall in the city, located at the North part from the harbour, so this time we headed to the right side.
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| back to the Sathorn Taksin harbour |
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| us on the Icon Siam shuttle boat, which is newer and nicer |
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| the Icon Siam from afar |
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| the pier we arrived at |
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| check out that big mall |
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| apparently they were having a Songkran festival at the riverfront plaza |
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| the fountains are playing music and people were gathering around it |
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| so this is the Icon Siam |
Icon Siam is a huge mall --I would compare it to Singapore's Marina Bay Sands or Jakarta's Grand Indonesia-- and it looked luxurious from the pier, mostly because of the design and lighting. And upon entering we'll know that this mall is a luxurious one. The ceiling decor looks like those we'd found at five-star hotels, and it smells so expensive too (you know those flowery fragrance you smell in those exclusive hotels).
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| see the ceiling decor? |
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| this doesn't look like a mall - this looks like a hotel, right? |
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| and the pond decor, too |
Going further, it's as if we entered "a whole new world" at their ground floor. The vast area is almost three-floors high, and decorated as if we were in an old Southeastern Asian village and floating market. Shops and restaurants are made united with the whole "old world" architecture, the stalls are made as if they were hawker sellers or even on the fisherman's boats. They sell all the Thai street food there, along with crafts and souvenirs too. It really is a unique experience to have here.
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| a pair of big elephant statues guard a palace-like plaza |
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| see how magical it seems? |
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| those yellow tropical fruits that look so fresh |
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| they even put a 'royal house' with information and images of the royal family |
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| going up to the second floor guarded with a pair of naga |
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| from the village houses' second floor |
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| there are just so much to see! |
But we couldn't stay overnight so eventually we had to take the shuttle boat back to Saphan Taksin, and take both the BTS and MRT ride back home. Tho we started pretty late today, it was a pretty exhausting day. Yet, it was fun.
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| me saying goodbye to the festive mall |
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| I love this festival decor for the Songkran |
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| one last look at the mall |
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| now let's go home... |
Day 5
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| my outfit with colourful floral shirt |
We really started out late this day, went to Huai Khwang area by MRT for late lunch (an all-you-can-eat dim sum), but the Songkran festival was quite strong there and people, wearing colourful shirts, bring with them water guns and shooting water to just everyone on the streets, and sometimes they add talc powder on our faces too. I had one set soon after leaving my brother's apartment. My mom hated the idea and didn't want to get any splash on her.
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| what I love about Bangkok is to see this kind of shrine here and there |
So we aborted the mission, canceled lunch there and moved on to another recommended restaurant that my brother had on the list, but it was quite a trip with MRT ride to Chatuchak area, transit to the Mo Chit BTS stations and finally arrived at Ari. Alas, the targeted restaurant was closed, so we walked to Phahon Yothin 7 Alley for another recommended restaurant, but it was also closed (we hated going on vacation on Songkran festival at this point), so we hopped into the restaurant next door that opened because it was past 3 p.m. already and we were starving.
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| the quiet street nearby Ari BTS station |
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| we can't read the signage so we don't know the name of the restaurant |
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| our lunch, another pork dish! |
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| the best bottled drink we got so far: MAXI honey lime soda |
The late lunch was okay, not fantastic somehow, but we couldn't move to another area just to find the best food so we had to deal with it. We stopped by at 7-Eleven for fresh soda drinks, then another walk to the BTS station (stopped by at La Villa to pee) back to Mo Chit, then we walked again to the Chatuchak weekend market.
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| La Villa Ari |
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| Chatuchak park |
The weekend market has been there for decades, and there's no way that you go to Bangkok without visiting is (or so they said). As its name, it opens only on Saturdays and Sundays, and divided into more than 20 sections. The shops and alleys are similar so I was a bit lost there. If you don't have signal/roaming package for your phone SIM card, don't get separated from your group. Or make an appointment as to reunite at certain point on certain time. That way, you can have fun exploring the market. It usually closes at 9 p.m. but --again-- due to Songkran week they closed earlier at 6 p.m.
The roads were wet because of the water gun splashing, and some people are seen totally wet head-to-toe. We tried our best to stay dry, made the best out of that only one hour we had to sweep the whole market (nope, not the whole of it, we didn't have that much time, but I liked what I saw there -- it's a different feel from the Ratchada Train Night Market and I think I like the rot fai better but Chatuchak offers other stuff so you just must visit both) and returned to the Chatuchak MRT station after 6 p.m.
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| took the shortcut to MRT station through the park |
We went back to Phra Ram 9 area because my mom was tired, and stopped by at Grand Rama Central for dinner. We had yet another som tum menu, this time at Maderla. Then we called it a day, went home and watched my brother played his PS4 till it was sleep time.
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| Maderla resto on the lower ground level of the mall |
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| our dish |
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| my plate consisted of rice vermicelli, sliced pork, sliced grilled beef, and som tum |
Day 6
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| I was so ready for the day -- tho we started it late |
It was Sunday and we scheduled it for temple hopping day. First we had lunch at McDonald's to make it fair with KFC we had on first night (LOL) then we headed to Hua Lamphong by MRT, then carried on with online taxi to the Wat Pho Temple. Due to Songkran week, the temple was crowded with people who come to pray. Guess we chose the wrong day for this, because I lost my appetite to walk around and take pics due to the crowd and heat. Remember, it hadn't rain since my brother moved here September last year!
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| Hua Lamphong railway station next to MRT station |
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| arrived in front of Wat Pho |
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| the entrance fee is THB 200, a bottle of cold mineral water included |
So we found a café nearby on Maha Rat Road for cold beverages, and we had coffee to restore our mood and energy. The café was a bit vintage-styled, and we stayed there till the sun wasn't too fierce. But by that time the Grand Palace, which was our next destination, was already closed for public. So if you want to visit this area, please start early. The palace is open from 8 am to 3 pm.
Disappointed and exhausted, we gave up with temples and looked for a mall instead. There's another riverfront outdoor mall within walking distance here, Tha Maharaj, where we then chilled for more than 2 hours waiting for the sun to set. I had mango sorbet popsicle while mom and Ben had gelato popsicle at Stickhouse.
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| I chose mango, among other mouthwatering options |
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| Chao Phraya River from the balcony |
After the sun set, we moved on to Yaowarat Road, which is the China Town. My brother hadn't been there so this was his first time too. We took a cab that dropped us off in the middle of traffic in an alley, then we had some walking around the area, which displays and sells pretty much similar stuff: pork, durian, seafood, shark fin (#@!), and fruit juice. We decided to have street food at Itsara Nuphap Road, which gave us duck noodle, some kind of lumpia (dumpling), and pork gyoza.
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| duck noodle soup, lumpia, gyoza, and pomegranade juice |
We don't really like this area, so we went home early.
Day 7
Since my mom was sick in the morning, we stayed home until noon and had heated rice box meal from 7-Eleven for lunch. Once she was feeling better we headed back to Siam area by online taxi. First we thought of visiting Bangkok Art And Culture Center (BACC) in the junction of Phayathai Road and Rama I Road, but again we were disappointed because it was closed during the Songkran week. So we crossed the street and went to the legendary MBK Center instead.
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| I just love seeing the structures in this junction |
Again disappointed, we found that MBK Center was not so different from Jakarta's Mangga Dua, so after having second lunch there (cheesy crusted pizza so similar to Pizza Hut unless that their corporate hue is green), we spent only a while in the mall (20-minutes in one shop and 10-minutes to check everything else) then went out and crossed the street --on the skywalk bridge-- to Siam Discovery.
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| pizza, because why not? |
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| the only store we went in, and spent some time in it |
The design-winning mall looked great, but nothing to buy there, so we moved on to the next mall, Siam Center, which we have visited on our second day. Again, not too much to see there, so we crossed the street and took a look around Siam Square. We then decided to have dinner at the Siam Paragon's food court.
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| you can see enthusiastic young people wearing costumes and get themselves wet everywhere in this area |
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| dusk sky and colourful lights |
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| still loving the structures, plus the crowd too |
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| inside Siam Paragon |
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| I'd guess this is Singaporean brand |
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| our dinner -- I still think Indonesia's tofu has better taste and texture |
We planned to go back to Ratchada rot fai again to buy stuff people asked us to buy for them, but turned out we were exhausted so we decided to go back home and chill. On the way home where we had to exchange transportation from BTS (Asok) to MRT (Sukhumvit), we visited Terminal 21 mall and had our final there instead. And, a quick stroll on the Soicowboy alley, the red district area, just to see what's happening there (they don't allow us to take pictures there).
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| the red district alley at Sukhumvit |
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| taking pics is restricted so this is the best that I could get |
In the MRT station we bumped into our friends couple, Alvin and Carmelita, whom we knew were also in Bangkok then, and had 20-minutes of catching up before we had to separate ways. Once we were back home, we spent the whole night packing so we didn't have to do it in the morning.
Day 8
The next day, we (only mom and I this time) arrived at the Don Mueang airport at 9 a.m. and departed from Bangkok at 11:25 a.m. We arrived in Jakarta's Soetta airport at around 3:30 p.m. and I had to "run" for 7p.m. meeting in Plaza Senayan that very night. That was included having second lunch in the airport and going home in BSD to get mom's car to get me to Senayan.
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| Lā k̀xn, Bangkok! |
Thus, it ended my first Bangkok Trip. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna come back there because I haven't visited enough temple. But I'll go more prepared next time. Hope your trip (if you are planning to go to Bangkok) will be better than mine!
