Bangkok!!!

YAY!

We had made ourselves back to Bangkok again all thanks to Airasia. Our tickets cost us both around RM300 return flight. It was a spontaneous booking, hell with it, it cost around the same getting to Singapore by BUS…

Well spontaneous booking without proper research ain’t that good. 2 days before we took off, I found that everyday will be a RAINY DAY?!!! HELL NO~~!!!

Based on last year Bangkok shopping trip, we knew very well how much we should pack our bags this time. We took minimal clothing and essentials only + 2 BIG bags. The heaviest cloth was my jeans. This is how empty both our bags are. We put them together for easy travel…

It is only 1/4 bag full only. Both bags alone weight 10kg in total. That leaves us 20kg worth of shopping. (We did such a good job that we actually ran out of clothes and proper shoe to wear. I missed out a pants for sleeping and a shoe, had to get one there, that’s how minimal it is)

PW looking forward towards to the trip very much. Just look at her smile…

We were extremely lucky to get the whole row to ourselves. Well not exactly ‘ourselves’ but maybe PW only. Well you get the picture.

The flight was quite a bumpy one but it got so much better when the pilot decided to fly on a lower altitude. This is what we saw right when we got below the dark cloud. I wonder what island is this?

I’m not sure whether is it the anxiety or the discomfort bumpy cloud that makes the flight so damn long.

BUT WE ARE FINALLY IN BANGKOK!!! YAY again!

As soon as we got to the airport, we grab any free Bangkok maps in our sight like robbing every tourist counter when we were on our way to the taxi booth.

We got a cool taxi, a little too big for 2 folks.

It was pretty hard job holding our gas in. See the no farting sign. Plus we got stuck in a jam which took us a little more than 1h to get to our hotel, Samran Place. (Without the jam, we took only 30min – 40min only)

First tourist Stop: Wat Pho or The temple of Reclining Buddha. Entrance Fee is 50 baht each.

Mr. Wiki says: It is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok. The Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet.

So Big~~ We can fit into his lubang hidung.. Sorry Amithaba.. 

While we are busy cam whoring in front of the Buddha, we keep hearing the sound of raining coins.. We thought it was some feng shui tape playing in the background.

But when we peek behind the Buddha, we saw rows of this. $_$

There’s a counter for you to change your bills to coins. It’s a form of donation to the temple as well as good blessings. You are suppose to drop the coin in the pot while saying prayers.

So for those of us tourist who don’t know any prayers just chant your wish. Crossing finger that it will come true.

Temple lady collecting the coin to sell it back to us tourist. PW standing there as decoy.

Besides the reclining Buddha, you can catch lil monks around.

Scholar monks:

Construction Monk helping out the replacement of the new shiny roofs.

A view of the four largest Chedi and Chedi Rai, all of which are decorated with flower motifs. The pretty lady there look so small compare to it.

PW call it the chiam chiam building (chiam = sharp).

She almost died climbing those steep stairs and had to hold on to my hands. I wonder how she still manage to have the energy to camwhore.

“Beware of your head!!”
They should have hired PW as the minimum height ruler. (5” below ONLY)
There are suppose to have more than a thousand Buddhas to be spotted in Wat Pho but we only manage to find a few. Future travelers to Wat Pho: you can make your trip more interesting by making a mission to spot the thousand Buddhas.

The minute we found this building, we knew very well that this is the famous message school because of the message oil pungent smell.

It is well recommended but the price is around 100 baht more. We did not try it since it was just the beginning of our trip. 

We got extremely hungry without lunch so we headed outside of Wat Pho for some BBQ pork which we enjoyed so much but unfortunately, it RAIN!!! What a spoiler to the first day!
Even the owner of the stall abandon the stall for shelter.

Both of us got stuck at one of the entrance of Wat Pho. You can just see how wet we were. 

We met a very friendly professor at Wat Pho. He recommended us to pay visit to the Black Buddha which opens only once a month and the EXPORT Shop which he said there is a promotion going on and ‘things’ are super cheap there.

He convinced us that the port to go to Wat Arun will be flooded with rain and the sunset will be a good few hours away. We took his recommendation.

He helped us to bargain for a 40 baht tuk tuk.

It was great experience for the first time in a tuk tuk although it is dangerous with no seat belt and door.

Don’t believe how heavy the rain was? The roads were flooded OK!

PW helping Black Buddha with the gold paper.

Me adding oil to the lamp to keep the lamp fire going.

We tried to ask why the Black Buddha is only open once month to public but no one knows. We hope that this temple is ‘leng’ + it was faith that got us there to pray.

After praying at the Black Buddha, we headed off to the ‘Export’ shop. We look forward to it so much but to our very dissapointment, it was a local gem shop!! We felt conned by the professor… We got out empty handed.

When we got out of the shop, the rain started again and our tuk tuk driver said that the Wat Arun port is still not in good condition. He asked us a favor whether we could help him out to visit his sponsor.

Well… guess what’s the shop? GEM!! GEM!! GEM!!!
ARGH!!! 2 gem shop in one day! I can’t believe it! Later when we look at the free Bangkok map we got from airport, first reminder to tourist, do not fall into the tuk tuk and gem scam.

Finally, we got back to the Tha Tien Pier for the Wat Arun ferry. Our stomach started to growl again since we had a disrupted lunch at Wat Pho.

First, we got some fried crabs. Not soft shell. Was pretty difficult for my jaw to chew on.

Next, we got some grilled bananas.

I looked like a hungry monkey waiting for the ferry. The ferry cost us only 3 baht/one way.

In the ferry heading to Wat Arun, we saw a good few personal tourist guides.

This is something you won’t miss when you arrive at the Wat Arun side of the ferry pier. CATFISH!! There are humongous. I had a short thought what happen if I join them for a short swim will they recognise me or BITE me?

This is Wat-ever. Lame! Don’t get it? They call all their temple Wat-something…
This is Wat Arun.

Wat Arun is decorated with China porcelain in shapes of flower. Imagine how they build and maintain it for such a long time.

Does this sign means loosing your life by jumping down the Wat Arun is priceless?

The steps at the last flight of the stairs at Wat Arun is super steep. Just for proof: the steps vs bottle 450ml. The bottle lost…

Don’t believe how steep it is? Nah…

Not convincing enough… Here is another one…

Well, you can say the picture above is camera angle and bla bla bla…
I think the photo below here with the uncle’s head almost 180 degrees tilted up to look at our camera will be more convincing. Believe now?

This view of the newer Bangkok region, overlooking Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Baiyoke Sky Tower.

Both of us camped at the top of Wat Arun for the ‘Ham Tan Wong’ (this is how PW call a sunset).

Sunset with the old Bangkok City.

After one long hour there, we finally feel satisfied with the sunset mood so we started to ‘climb’ down the steep stairs and get back to the new Bangkok city side.

Stay tune for more! It took us so long to finish this LOOONG post, still more to go.

Do cheer on us to finish the rest of it,

PW, Catfish