Monday, November 23, 2009

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…

luggage
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…Airasia

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

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?airasia window

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.bangkok taxi

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)no farting

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.wat pho reclining buddha

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

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. $_$wat pho donation

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.wat pho

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

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

Scholar monks:wat pho cute statue

Construction Monk helping out the replacement of the new shiny roofs.
Wat Pho Statue at work

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. Winking

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

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.wat pho helping pw

“Beware of your head!!”
They should have hired PW as the minimum height ruler. (5” below ONLY)wat pho roof height
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.wat pho massage centre

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. 
wat pho massage centre 2

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!wat pho rain
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. 
wat pho rain shelter

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.
met professor at wat pho

It was great experience for the first time in a tuk tuk although it is dangerous with no seat belt and door. Worried
tuk tuk bangkok flooded
Don’t believe how heavy the rain was? The roads were flooded OK!

PW helping Black Buddha with the gold paper.
black buddha bangkok 1

Me adding oil to the lamp to keep the lamp fire going.
black buddha bangkok 2
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. Time out

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.
fried crab store @ tha tien pier

First, we got some fried crabs. Not soft shell. Sad Was pretty difficult for my jaw to chew on.
fried crab @ tha tien pier

Next, we got some grilled bananas.
grilled banna @ tha tien pier

I looked like a hungry monkey waiting for the ferry. The ferry cost us only 3 baht/one way.
wat arun @ tha tien pier

In the ferry heading to Wat Arun, we saw a good few personal tourist guides.
wat arun @ express boat

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?
wat arun catfish

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

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

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…
wat arun step

Don’t believe how steep it is? Nah…
wat arun stairs gate

Not convincing enough… Here is another one…
wat arun steep stairs

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?
climbing down wat arun stairs

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

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

Sunset with the old Bangkok City.
wat arun sunset 1

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.
wat arun sunset 2

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

Monday, November 16, 2009

Hot Chick!!

Dear Readers,

You know Sunny Boy.

sunny boy

Now I present to you ‘Hot Chick’.  Red heart (Disclaimer: That ‘P’ sticker is not meant for me..)

hot chick

But look at Hot Chick’s 1st doctor visit. T______________________________T

hot chick's bill

Tell me, did I kena con or wat?  Is this the “market” price? Shop’s name mosaic-ed because I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.. But ENLIGHTEN me please~

I’m sooo feeling the burn and sam tong-ness ok. Crying

I hate using services of mechanics, plumber, electrician, etc etc other service oriented people..

I always feel conned and stupid around them. For me, they are like vultures.

When you bring your car to a mechanic, there will always be something wrong with it. (Oil seal leaking la, mounting break la, absorber soft la, filter dirty la, pump puncture la, add many many more parts break, loose, hard, soft, etc etc destructive adjective)

Never understood what they say, and worse case is you can never judge the seriousness of it because they will be telling you all the worse case scenario. Maybe the situation is not that bad.

Just imagine that you are visiting a doctor for a small cut on your finger and your prescription is a new prosthetic arm. T___T  Skip the medicine. Their story is a cut risk infection, then assume it will spread to your arm then you will need to chop off your arm. So to avoid that, just use a ‘plastic’ arm.

It’s like if you don’t do anything to it then you won’t feel safe using your arm or driving the car in my case.

AND they quote ridiculous price for small simple job. Changing a fuse cost you RM100 when it only require a few minutes work. Even Catfish can do it. *proud* It’s like charging you RM100 to place a plaster on the said cut if you are smart enough to not buy the plastic arm. T_T My uncle’s electrician friend said so himself one. I’m not just saying it based on nothing.

Any useful tips or good guide book out there on how to handle these service people? Help me. *beg* I will appreciate it a lot X 100000000000000000…… ‘sleeping 8’ (sleeping 8? neh, infinity la.)

 

- Pei Wen -