When May came, we were off to the land of smiles. I must tell you, I had a lot of reservations about this trip. It was the first vacation I have with my mother. Only God knew what would happen there.
Late-night flights are one of the downsides of purchasing promo tickets. Imagine, yourself arriving in a new place in the middle of the night or in the wee hours of the morning. Not pretty. In addition to that, you had been waiting in the airport for God knows how long for your flight. "Mika" face everyone.
Our flight to Bangkok was delayed for 1 and 15 minutes. We were just sitting there inside the plane for so long that I was willing to go out and just stay at the airport. Instead of arriving at midnight, we arrived three hours after.
My brother, being the planner that he was, booked for a bus transfer. Thank God. We took comfort inside a private van while it rained cats and dogs. By the time we reached our hotel, the rain had stopped. We checked in and fixed a few glitches. We went up our room, too exhausted to fully admire its beauty, we dozed off. Well, they did. I did not, for awhile. It took a few minutes to dawn on me that I was actually in Thailand. I looked out the window and marvelled at the beauty that was Bangkok.
The first thing I did when I woke up after a few hours was looked out the window and fed my eyes with the magnificent view in front of me. Our suite was gorgeous with floor to ceiling glass windows, separate bath, shower and toilet, two flat screen TVs (one inside the master bedroom and another in the living room) and mini office. There's mirror almost everywhere and we can ask for free bottled water anytime. And the staff, the friendliest, most hospitable people I have ever met. I was in the lounge checking Facebook when the laptop's battery got low. Seeing that I was having a bit of trouble, a staff bent down, went under the coffee table to plugged in the computer. Who would do that?
Vie Hotel is not a five-star accomadation for nothing. :D
We had free breakfast buffets and the food is simply the best. My first authentic Thai food experience.
Another great thing about our hotel is that, it's a stone's throw from the Ratchathewi BTS station. A lady officer was kind enough to teach us how to load credits into our fare cards. We never failed to give tips to people who offered their services to us.
Bangkok is one of the shopping meccas in Asia. On our first day, we went to the weekend market, Chatuchak, a five-stop train ride from Phaya Thai (near our hotel, Vie). Seeing stalls after stalls after stalls of cheap clothes, cute accessories and other things was heaven for me and Innah. I spent about 1500 baht and trust me, I bought enough to last me a week in BKK.
The only thing I did not enjoy was the weather. It felt like almost 40 degrees out there. And one of the best things about Chatuchak aside from having the cheapest clothes is that everything's there from hats to shoes to everything under the sun. Innah and I can't help but try these four baht ice cold treats. I forgot what they call it but they taste kind of like ice pop. It helped cool our bodies down. I just did not like it when I got to the end part, boy, was it salty. It made me think of how it was made and why it tasted like it did. Ha-ha.
Did I mention that there was also food everywhere? Stalls after stalls of fresh fruits, all peeled and cut up and ready to eat. And did I forget to tell you how their fruits tasted? It was ah-may-ZING! If you have the chance to go to there, the must-try fruits are green mangoes with their own version of "hipon" (ground hipon with sugar and salt), papaya and sweet corn. One thing I did not try though was the street food. Sure, it looked great but it was not appetizing enough for me. Okay, okay. I was scared I might fall victim to diarrhea. LOL So I stuck to restaurant foods. I did not find deep fried scorpions and grasshoppers appetizing. So sue me. LOL
Since it was so hot outside, we decided to eat lunch somewhere with AC.
We chose Toh Plue Restaurant located within Chatuchak. As usual, Innah and I were on separate tables. We were allowed to order anything as long as we eat them all til the last piece.
We ordered these babies. I forgot their names (except for the pineapple rice) but never how they tasted on my mouth the moment they entered it. I felt like I was in food heaven. It was spicy and sweet. The food just burst in flavor. By the way, ordering was not difficult for non-Thais. You just point at the pictures on the menu. hehe
This dish above, I thot it was mango. I felt so stupid when I ask the part-time waitress what it was. She had a hard time translating it to English. Turned out, it was just squash. And trust me, it did not sound like squash at all. I forgive her, she was nice to us.
These photos are too small but Innah and I manage to gobble everything up. And a white guy and her Asian girlfriend were amused with us. Wanna know why? Because we took pictures of our food and everything inside the restaurant. Bahala na lang toh sila. haha
The next day, we were greeted with unpleasant news about flood back in our hometown. But all is well after we called my other brother. It was an expensive phone call, I tell you. Anyway, after much discussion, we went down to the cafe and grill for our breakfast. And once again, Vie Hotel did not disappoint with a new menu and the same hospitable service.
This is our first plate of rice and some dimsum and other breakfast foods and first serving of yummy pastries and a glass of fresh pineapple and orange juice. YUM!
My brother booked a half-day tour to the Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo. It was a 20-30 minute ride from our hotel. We had a tour guide, Pat. We watched the magic show, elephant show (where the elephants did tricks, danced, played football and acted) and crocodile wrestling where the croc trainers put their heads inside the crocs' mouth. Trust me, it was scary! And we got to feed the elephants with sugar canes (one bundle for 10 baht).
And yeah, my brother booked this trip as a mother's day present to our nanay, his mother-in-law and of course, his wife.
This is, by far, the worst food that I tasted in Thailand. It was too hot, too salty and it tasted icky. We all did not have a choice but to eat it.
After lunch, we walked around the park and took photos to remember this trip by. I swear, the place smelled of elephant dung. If it weren't for the beautiful orchids and the scenic lake, I would've been pissed.
And then we went back to the city.
We asked Pat if the driver could drop us off near Platinum Mall and he said they could.
But we could not stop directly in front since Bangkok is one of those cities that uses the right-hand drive(I don't know the right term) thingy. And we were on the other side of the road. We had to walk half a block and we did a little souvenir shopping while on our way to the mall.
One of the malls that sell clothes and other things at cheap prices but nothing beats Chatuchak! (Loyalista.)
We had our dinner here and they have a different method of paying their food. We had to pay it through a coupon which is actually like a debit card. You have to buy credits and then the food stalls would swipe it and deduct the amount.
It was a fun way of paying your food. But old people who refuse to learn their way, end up buying KFC. haha
Bangkok is such a colorful and wonderful city and I fell in love with it the moment I experienced what it has to offer. Being there and experiencing their culture was one of the most amazing things in my life. It was only recently when I started traveling abroad and it gets better every time. Traveling does not only broaden our perspective and it does not only give us additional knowledge but it also gives us something far more valuable than anything in this world, experiences. And every place we visit, we bring along a part of it with us.
On our last day, we booked a tour to the Grand Palace and Gems Gallery with the same agency and tour guide. We were advised to wear conservative clothes. A lot of tourists frequent the Grand Palace. It was a massive area with quite a number of temples and the most famous of them all was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Visiting the place made me learn a lot about Thai History and its people. My mouth hung open when I saw the exterior of the temples. But what was even more magnificent was the inside. Seeing the Emerald Buddha was beyond words.
After walking around the Grand Palace, we went directly to Gems Gallery. Part of the tour was letting us see how the jewelries were made.We then went into the store and looked at the different jewelries ranging from a thousand baht to 25 million baht. Those jewelries were beautiful and too expensive. After the tour, we went to our hotel and changed clothes and checked out. We did a little last minute shopping at MBK. It was like 500 meters from our hotel but we were too tired to walk so we took a cab.
Our flight back home was not until 12.30 am so we spent our extra time shopping and chilling inside MBK. We had our late lunch at Yanna Restaurant (Halal). I love their satay. As usual, Innah and I were at another table so we got to order whatever we wanted. Then we walked back to the hotel to get our things and wait for the van that would take us to the airport. On our way back, my mother and I saw what I've been trying to look for there, the exotic food. We saw fried scorpions, stir-fried crickets, battered grasshoppers and other edible insects. I thought I was going to vomit. HAHA.
Then we were off to the airport. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that their airport is a site to see as well. It was a modern airport made of glass(I think) with a lot of travelators. We had time to spare before the check-in time so we ate our dinner at a cafe and I swear, I will not be eating American Fried rice anytime soon. elck!
And of course, Cebu Pacific never failed to disappoint. Our flight got delayed for 2 hours yet again. I experienced sleeping at the airport one more time. We only have a few minutes to spare for our 7.20am flight to Cebu. But we made it.
When we arrived in Cebu, I was sad that my Thai vacation has come to an end and at the same time glad that I was able to have this vacation with my parents and in a way, happy that I don't have to be confined with them in the same room for so long. If it went on longer, I would've gone bonkers by now.
This trip has made me learn a lot not only about myself but my family as well. It made me realize that I am a bit like Manoy Romel and I got to learn how to exercise my patience and control my tongue. Really. One important lesson I learned from traveling with family is that never say things that you think they don't want to hear because the last thing you need is a fight with the rest of them and ruining the good vibe. Do you really want to see yourselves frowning when the pictures are developed?
No, I don't think so.
If you ask me, I will go back to Bangkok anytime (as long as money and time would permit me). Maybe go to Phuket and explore the "virgin" beaches and just maybe, try out the street food na and of course, the night life.
Another country crossed out in my bucket list. Next is.......
...It will be a surprise.
