Bangkok 2007 - Day 2

The morning call rang at 5.15 am cos the tour guide will pick us up at 6.00 am. SHIT we stay nearest to the tour agency and we will be the first pick up. I drag myself up and after I am done, got to drag the big baby up from the bed. Dearie Suki is not a morning person, so it is kind of tough to wake him. He even tell me he don't want to go for the tour. Walaueh already paid for it don't want to go! After a few nagging from me finally he woke up and get himself ready.

We miss the breakfast at the hotel cos it is too early. What a waste. The tour van arrived exactly 6.00 am and we are the first to board the van and the advantages is that we can choose a good place to sit. We have 14 travellers on the van from various places, 2 uncles from Beijing, a family of 4 from Singapore, 2 ladies from Brunei, a couple in their 40's from Cebu, Philippines, and an elderly couple from Germany plus both of us from Malaysia.

The journey to the Damnern Sa-duak Floating Market in Ratchaburi province took about 2 hours drive from Bangkok. Once reach there the market is full with people not only tourist but the local Thai people too were there cos according to the tour guide it is a long holiday in Thailand therefore many of them are on holiday.

We reached the floating market at about 8.30 am and I was telling Dearie Suki lets go for the boat ride and cost per person for the ride is 150 Baht for 1/2 an hour. He start to nag me again for what want to go for the ride and look at the boat traffic jam, end up we will be sitting in the boat and do nothing and he was telling me I can't even buy things from the boat. Yeah, he is right end up we just walk along the canal.

It is so happening at the market. The mobile company Happy is launching their product at the Floating Market. I think this is such a good marketing strategy to target at their rural Thai people to use their mobile services. Maybe our local mobile company should do it at our local wet market. Hahaha... but we already have Happy here riding together with DIGI.

Thai sweet dessert

Breakfast we had the the Thai clear noodles soup with lots of chilli powder on top. Syiok ! The BBQ pork and chicken wings is so delish. I wonder what ingredients they used to marinate the meat. The Thai crispy pancake is my favourite and I had loads of it that morning tho it is a bit sweet but I just love it.

2nd destination of the day is to the Handicraft Centre. It is one of the Queen's project whereby she set this for the poor to master the skills so that they have a better future. I am so impressed with the craving. For that piece of crafted wall deco, it takes about 1 year to complete it. It is so amazing!

Coconut juice...we had a lot of it and I could say every day we only drank coconut juice. Only 20 Baht per coconut and it is so sweet and refreshing on a hot sunny day. The buffet lunch at the Crocodile Farm.... I have no comment cos foods is so, so only. After lunch we go for the Elephant show and Crocodile show. Nothing special it is just waste of time but I think the kids will love it.

Elephant Show

Crocodile Show

After the shows, its time to head back to Bangkok and yet another 2 hours of travelling. We get the driver to stop us at Pratunam Market, one of the biggest textiles and garments wholesaling place in Bangkok.

More shopping in Pratunam and we went into a mall to shop for clothing and oh my, we were in that shop for more than 2 hours. Dearie Suki bought the most. He get his working shirt there, T-shirts, shorts and more T-shirts for the kids. Try to bargain the price with the 'leng chai Thai sales assistant' but I don't think so we need much bargain cos the apparels there is damn cheap and quite good quality.

We bought all at wholesaling price which is much more cheaper than his retail price... about 40% cheaper but with a condition you must buy at least 3 pieces and above. So Dearie Suki happily sapu the clothes. Me, get a few T-shirts for the kids and the quality is quite good some more the front pics is all emboidery with a protecter inside. Cost only 100 Baht per piece. I also get myself a Naruya bag, yes one only cos they got not much choice if not I will get 3's.

Embroidery T-shirt for Le-Ann and Ee-Thern

So much yummy foods at the Pratunam street

After the shopping we walk outside the stall in Pratunam street. Looks more like a night market to me and selling only clothings and it is very similar to the night market in Chiangmai. I wanted to do more shopping but my Dearie Suki start complaining stomachache la, leg pain la and wanted to go back to hotel. I got angry cos it is only 8 pm and he wanted to go back to hotel. Sigh... if I am with my 'Ci Mui' we will walk till midnight.

There is no train station in Pratunam and the nearest one is in Siam Center and he started to tell me we should get a taxi back to hotel. Walaueh, I think he must be crazy with that money I can buy another two Naruya bags!

Flag down a mini 'tut tut' and I started to bargain the price with the driver. He wanted 100 Baht and I tekan him to 50 Baht but end up pay 80 Baht and I still find expensive. Anyway just pay for it and hop into it. It is such a short distance but it takes about 40 minutes to reach Siam Paragon because of the crazy traffic jam in Bangkok.

Traffic jam everywhere in Bangkok

Again we had our dinner in Siam Paragon's food court. It is a Saturday night and the whole food court is packed with people and we can't even find a place to sit. I had a bowl of Hot & Spicy Tom Yum Kung with Glass Noodle and Dearie Suki ordered a bowl of Unagi Rice. I also ordered a bowl of Kuay Chap with all the 'spare parts' but some how we find that the pork in Bangkok taste better compared to here.

After dinner we took the train back to hotel . It is another tiring day but we certainly enjoy the shopping in Pratunam Market.

For supper, I 'tapau' the BBQ Udang Galah and the BBQ Pork from Pratunam. The prawns taste good with the sauce. I can't describe the sauce, it is a bit of sourish, a bit of sweet and off course spicy. Super delicious when you dip the prawns into the sauce. The prawns is fresh too and cheap only 100 Baht. Then we had the BBQ Pork at 10 Baht per stick and it taste more like 'char bak'. Dearie Suki is not a veg eater so I bought some fruits for him. We had the sweet pineapples, the jackfruits and pomelo.

Day 3 in Bangkok is another full day of shopping and also I will be starting to source for products at the Chatuchak Weekend Market..... will update soon in my next post.