Day 1 (Khao San)
Our budget Airasia flight departed to Bangkok from Penang at 6.15pm. It was about 45minutes delay from the departure time.Sigh…I guess Airasia never learn to be punctual. Anyway, the waiting time was not so long afterall.
We reached Bangkok Suvarnabumi airport in about 2 hours and took the A2 Airport bus (150baht each) to Khao San Road.
“Khao San” in Thai known as raw rice. This place used to be a major rice market in Bangkok. Nowadays, this road has emerged to be the most famous backpackers meeting point in South East Asia. Many cheap accommodations, restaurant, clothing, tour office, souvenirs, pub etc can be found in this street. It is located in Banglamphu district and one can easily access into many tourist attractions such as the Grand Palace.
Our accommodation located in a quiet area where we have to go through a small alley off Prasumen Road. It was about 5 minutes walking distance to Khao San road. My first dinner located in a cozy Thai restaurant atmosphere at Soi Rambutri. Surprisingly, my dish was super hot considering this restaurant located at the heart of many backpackers from various countries.
a>Pad Thai...Yummy
One of the restaurant that we stopover for fruit juice....
After filling up our tummy, we had a stroll at the lively Khao San Road, bought the day tour ticket to Floating market/River Kwai/Tiger temple, tried the famous Pad Thai, before heading back to our inn for a good night sleep. For me, Khao San road is a great place to stroll and have a drink in one of the pub but is not to my liking to stay there as it was quite noisy. That is the reason why I chose the quieter accommodation not too far away from Khao San road.
Day 2 (Grand-Palace & Siam-Paragorn)
Our 2nd day did not start off well. We intend to go to the Grand Palace early in the morning to avoid the crowds but get conned by the con man near the Grand Palace. The tuk-tuk that we took drove us to this con men since he could not speak English well. The con men told us that it was the Buddha Day and the Grand Palace only open to visitor after 1pm. This con men appeared to be very helpful and showed us various tourist spot to visit to kill the time. Since there was a couple hours before the Grand Palace visiting hour, we trusted the con men and he ordered the tuk-tuk guy to take us to various tourist spots(most of them are wats and gem stone shop) with a good bargain of 50baht.
Above are some of the places we visited. I even seeked another Thai stranger in one of this wats to get confirmation on whether the Grand Palace really close for Buddha Day in the morning and he nodded. It seemed that there were many con men network around the tourist spot I visited. After visiting some of the tourist spots, we found nothing really interesting and asked the tuk-tuk guy to take us back to the Grand Palace. He was requesting for 200 baht instead of 50 baht but we paid that amount since he took us to a reasonable distance and waited for us from one place to another. Worst still, after payment another con men claimed to be university graduate told us our attire were inappropriate and did another tourist spots recommendation. We began to feel suspicious and took another tuk-tuk back to our inn. Our Amarin Inn owner was very helpful and called the grand palace for confirmation. That was the time where we found we’ve been cheated as the Grand Palace was open to visitor since early that morning. Therefore, to anyone out there, do not trust anyone upon reaching near the grand palace. Just get into the Grand Palace reception and check it out yourself.
In the afternoon, we finally made it to the Grand Palace. We took several shots before the downpour got us soaking wet. Damn…It made me wanted to curse all these con men we met in the morning for causing us such an unpleasant time. Enough of this unfortunate time and lets move on with the good times after that.
Grand Palace is one of the must visit place in Bangkok. It served as the King of Thailand official residence. Adjacent to it is the Wat Phra Kaew or Temple of Emerald Buddha which is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. This is where the Emarald Buddha located. Entrance fee is 350 baht.
The magnificent wat stood tall within the ground of Grand Palace. I admire the detail effort taken to decorate the wall of each architectures. The colours were carefully selected to bring the vibrant colour thus bringing a lively atmosphere even when the sky was cloudy.
Just trying a monochrome image....
There were many intriguing statues with different facial expression in this grand wat. Most of them were painted gold in colour.
I managed to capture a shot of this Thai monk. He was also a visitor to this grand palace.
I took this shot right after the downpour. These two pigeons seemed to be very lovable as they did not stop kissing each other for quite a long time.
Later in the evening we visited the Siam Paragorn. This place is a shopping heaven for a more branded items . We did some shopping and had one of the best Tum Yam Kung during our stay in Bangkok.
Day 3 (Floating-market to River-Kwai to Tiger Temple)
Of all the days in Bangkok, the day 3 was the most memorable. I bought the day tour for 500 Baht each(including lunch but excluding all the entrance fee). Take note that the entrance fee for the tiger temple is 500 Baht.
Our first destination was Damnoen Saduak which is famous for its floating market. We sat on the long boat paddled by a Thai. We were taken to the floating market and the place was crowded with boats selling various goods i.e fruits, noodles, souvenirs, drinks etc.
I like this place as it offers plenty of photography opportunities. It is something really special and feature the uniqueness of Thailand. I had visited this place about 7-8 years ago and this is a refreshment for me.After the boat journey, we had an hour to move around the floating market before continuing our journey to Kanchaburi for lunch. Below are some pictures taken in Damnoen Saduak.
20 Baht for a coconut drink? Maybe...from her sign language..
I found that this type of hat is quite special. Unlike the typical Vietnamese hat, this hat is flat at the center.
Row-row-row your boat...This little girl training up to follow her mother foot step...
I think this old Golden retriver belongs to the owner of the restaurant that we had our snack. He was very friendly dog and many visitors attracted to it including me.
After the floating market tour, we headed to War Museum in Kanchaburi. The museum exhibit many World War 2 collections such as the war instruments, uniforms etc.
The entrance to the war museum.
On top of the building, I could see the panoramic view of the Bridge of River Kwai. Though the mid day sun was extremely hot, the blue sky and patches of clouds made my shot more interesting. This bridge was part of the death railway where the prisoners(mostly Dutch, Australian and British), under the Japanese army, were force to build the death railway linking Thailand and Burma. This railway was built with intention to move men and supplies to Burma front where the Japanese were fighting against the British. Many prisoners died due to starvation and torture.
The tiger temple was the main highlights of the day. I got to know about this tiger temple from a documentary show .That was my first adult tiger encounter experience in my life. I thought it was going to be thrilling touching the adult tiger but they looked so tame and cuddly. Most of them just lying lazily at the canyon. We were told to line up and the volunteer will bring along one person at a time to touch several adult tigers. The volunteer will help to take some shots while I was touching the tiger.
The story of the tiger temple started since 1999 where a tiger cub was given to this temple located at Kanchaburi province. Soon after that, many tigers were brought to this temple to be raised by the monks. The tiger canyon used to have tigers roaming freely but nowadays these tigers were taken to the canyon and chained due to the increasing of visitors and tigers for safety reason.
I saw some sites stated additional 1000 Baht required for the special photo. Take note that this special photo additional payment is for a person to get to enjoy his/her photo taken with the tiger head resting on the person lap. The ordinary photos where I touch the tiger were free of charge.
My most memorable experience was when we got an opportunity to play with the tiger cubs by paying extra 1000 baht each. It was quite costly, but since we had came so far, we finally paid to enjoy this chance of the lifetime experience. We had about 45 minutes and got the chance to cuddle, play and feed the tiger cubs. They were extremely playful and really behave like a baby when we fed them with a bottle of milk.
Some say curiosity can kill a cat. These 3 cubs were curious to see what was happening outside their enclosure.
Our budget Airasia flight departed to Bangkok from Penang at 6.15pm. It was about 45minutes delay from the departure time.Sigh…I guess Airasia never learn to be punctual. Anyway, the waiting time was not so long afterall.
We reached Bangkok Suvarnabumi airport in about 2 hours and took the A2 Airport bus (150baht each) to Khao San Road.
“Khao San” in Thai known as raw rice. This place used to be a major rice market in Bangkok. Nowadays, this road has emerged to be the most famous backpackers meeting point in South East Asia. Many cheap accommodations, restaurant, clothing, tour office, souvenirs, pub etc can be found in this street. It is located in Banglamphu district and one can easily access into many tourist attractions such as the Grand Palace.Our accommodation located in a quiet area where we have to go through a small alley off Prasumen Road. It was about 5 minutes walking distance to Khao San road. My first dinner located in a cozy Thai restaurant atmosphere at Soi Rambutri. Surprisingly, my dish was super hot considering this restaurant located at the heart of many backpackers from various countries.
a>Pad Thai...Yummy
One of the restaurant that we stopover for fruit juice....After filling up our tummy, we had a stroll at the lively Khao San Road, bought the day tour ticket to Floating market/River Kwai/Tiger temple, tried the famous Pad Thai, before heading back to our inn for a good night sleep. For me, Khao San road is a great place to stroll and have a drink in one of the pub but is not to my liking to stay there as it was quite noisy. That is the reason why I chose the quieter accommodation not too far away from Khao San road.
Day 2 (Grand-Palace & Siam-Paragorn)
Our 2nd day did not start off well. We intend to go to the Grand Palace early in the morning to avoid the crowds but get conned by the con man near the Grand Palace. The tuk-tuk that we took drove us to this con men since he could not speak English well. The con men told us that it was the Buddha Day and the Grand Palace only open to visitor after 1pm. This con men appeared to be very helpful and showed us various tourist spot to visit to kill the time. Since there was a couple hours before the Grand Palace visiting hour, we trusted the con men and he ordered the tuk-tuk guy to take us to various tourist spots(most of them are wats and gem stone shop) with a good bargain of 50baht.
Above are some of the places we visited. I even seeked another Thai stranger in one of this wats to get confirmation on whether the Grand Palace really close for Buddha Day in the morning and he nodded. It seemed that there were many con men network around the tourist spot I visited. After visiting some of the tourist spots, we found nothing really interesting and asked the tuk-tuk guy to take us back to the Grand Palace. He was requesting for 200 baht instead of 50 baht but we paid that amount since he took us to a reasonable distance and waited for us from one place to another. Worst still, after payment another con men claimed to be university graduate told us our attire were inappropriate and did another tourist spots recommendation. We began to feel suspicious and took another tuk-tuk back to our inn. Our Amarin Inn owner was very helpful and called the grand palace for confirmation. That was the time where we found we’ve been cheated as the Grand Palace was open to visitor since early that morning. Therefore, to anyone out there, do not trust anyone upon reaching near the grand palace. Just get into the Grand Palace reception and check it out yourself.
In the afternoon, we finally made it to the Grand Palace. We took several shots before the downpour got us soaking wet. Damn…It made me wanted to curse all these con men we met in the morning for causing us such an unpleasant time. Enough of this unfortunate time and lets move on with the good times after that.
Grand Palace is one of the must visit place in Bangkok. It served as the King of Thailand official residence. Adjacent to it is the Wat Phra Kaew or Temple of Emerald Buddha which is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. This is where the Emarald Buddha located. Entrance fee is 350 baht.
The magnificent wat stood tall within the ground of Grand Palace. I admire the detail effort taken to decorate the wall of each architectures. The colours were carefully selected to bring the vibrant colour thus bringing a lively atmosphere even when the sky was cloudy.
Just trying a monochrome image....
There were many intriguing statues with different facial expression in this grand wat. Most of them were painted gold in colour.
I managed to capture a shot of this Thai monk. He was also a visitor to this grand palace.
I took this shot right after the downpour. These two pigeons seemed to be very lovable as they did not stop kissing each other for quite a long time.Later in the evening we visited the Siam Paragorn. This place is a shopping heaven for a more branded items . We did some shopping and had one of the best Tum Yam Kung during our stay in Bangkok.
Day 3 (Floating-market to River-Kwai to Tiger Temple)
Of all the days in Bangkok, the day 3 was the most memorable. I bought the day tour for 500 Baht each(including lunch but excluding all the entrance fee). Take note that the entrance fee for the tiger temple is 500 Baht.
Our first destination was Damnoen Saduak which is famous for its floating market. We sat on the long boat paddled by a Thai. We were taken to the floating market and the place was crowded with boats selling various goods i.e fruits, noodles, souvenirs, drinks etc.
I like this place as it offers plenty of photography opportunities. It is something really special and feature the uniqueness of Thailand. I had visited this place about 7-8 years ago and this is a refreshment for me.After the boat journey, we had an hour to move around the floating market before continuing our journey to Kanchaburi for lunch. Below are some pictures taken in Damnoen Saduak.
20 Baht for a coconut drink? Maybe...from her sign language..
I found that this type of hat is quite special. Unlike the typical Vietnamese hat, this hat is flat at the center.
Row-row-row your boat...This little girl training up to follow her mother foot step...
I think this old Golden retriver belongs to the owner of the restaurant that we had our snack. He was very friendly dog and many visitors attracted to it including me.
After the floating market tour, we headed to War Museum in Kanchaburi. The museum exhibit many World War 2 collections such as the war instruments, uniforms etc.
The entrance to the war museum.
On top of the building, I could see the panoramic view of the Bridge of River Kwai. Though the mid day sun was extremely hot, the blue sky and patches of clouds made my shot more interesting. This bridge was part of the death railway where the prisoners(mostly Dutch, Australian and British), under the Japanese army, were force to build the death railway linking Thailand and Burma. This railway was built with intention to move men and supplies to Burma front where the Japanese were fighting against the British. Many prisoners died due to starvation and torture.
The tiger temple was the main highlights of the day. I got to know about this tiger temple from a documentary show .That was my first adult tiger encounter experience in my life. I thought it was going to be thrilling touching the adult tiger but they looked so tame and cuddly. Most of them just lying lazily at the canyon. We were told to line up and the volunteer will bring along one person at a time to touch several adult tigers. The volunteer will help to take some shots while I was touching the tiger.
The story of the tiger temple started since 1999 where a tiger cub was given to this temple located at Kanchaburi province. Soon after that, many tigers were brought to this temple to be raised by the monks. The tiger canyon used to have tigers roaming freely but nowadays these tigers were taken to the canyon and chained due to the increasing of visitors and tigers for safety reason.
I saw some sites stated additional 1000 Baht required for the special photo. Take note that this special photo additional payment is for a person to get to enjoy his/her photo taken with the tiger head resting on the person lap. The ordinary photos where I touch the tiger were free of charge.
My most memorable experience was when we got an opportunity to play with the tiger cubs by paying extra 1000 baht each. It was quite costly, but since we had came so far, we finally paid to enjoy this chance of the lifetime experience. We had about 45 minutes and got the chance to cuddle, play and feed the tiger cubs. They were extremely playful and really behave like a baby when we fed them with a bottle of milk.
Some say curiosity can kill a cat. These 3 cubs were curious to see what was happening outside their enclosure.We didn't realize that the time pass by so quickly and we had to get back to our tour minivan to Bangkok. What I can say that this was an unforgetable great experience in my life.
At night, we took a stroll at Khao San road and tried the delicious Thai Food at Tom Yum Kung restaurant.
Day 4 (Chatuchak & Wat-Pho)
Early the next morning, we took a metered taxi to Chatuchak weekend market. It cost around 100Baht which already included a small amount of tips for his good maintenance of the taxi seat and honesty. Before that, we rejected another taxi driver along Soi Rambutri road which he offered 150baht for non-metered taxi.
Chatuchak market opens only during the weekend(Saturday and Sunday) and is believed to be the biggest market in the world. It consist of about 5000 stalls and shops selling various goods such as clothing, home decorations items, food, pet etc. You can get a good bargain for the items being sold there. This place can get very congested and hot during the mid day and I would recommend to anyone out there to visit this place early in the morning.
Anybody know what are these? They looked like baseball bat but those are actually umbrellas.
I bought some lighting souvenir at a good price from this shop...
This teenage Siberian Husky was waiting for an owner. There were many other puppies for sale.
Hey! My name is Garfield. Stop messing me around...
We had a stop over at one of the Chatuchak market restaurant for lunch. They pineapple rice and fresh orange juice were simply delicious and rejuvenating.In the evening, we visited another wat known as 'Wat Pho' adjacent to the Grand Palace. It is also known as the Temple Of Reclining Buddha and is the birthplace of tradisional Thai massage.
There are many cat lover in Thailand. Everywhere I go, there will be cats around.
The Reclining Buddha is the main highlights for Wat Pho. It is 46m long and 15m height. It is optional for people to throw each coins into the alm bowls along the back section of the reclining Buddha. It is believed that, once completed the donation, he/she will be blessed.
Another purpose of visiting Wat Pho was to try out the famous traditional Thai massage. The massage school was opened since 1955 and many had graduated from this well known massage school and open their own Thai massage business around the world. The massage centre located within Wat Pho itself. There was another one located not far from Wat Pho and the massager in the Wat Pho brought us there. The adjacent centre was comfortable,air-conditionan and cost 350baht per hour. We took 1.5hr traditional Thai massage and I can tell you that this was the best ever Thai massage I ever had. The one we tried along the Khao San was no match to this old school Thai massage.
At night, we dine at Soi Rambutri. We did some shopping before headed back to our inn.
Day 5 (Bangkok-Penang)
This was the last day in Bangkok and basically we waited for the airport bus to the Suvarnabumi Airport to catch the retun flight to Penang. In my opinion, the trip was quite enjoyable and filled us with many great sites, delicious Thai food and lifetime experience.
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