Two weeks school holiday finally comes to end. I had great times and really enjoyed a lot. 9 August 2013 till 12 August 2013 is my second ladies trip with a different group of friends. 6 of us are secondary school friends. Although i transferred to another school after PMR, i still keep close touch with this group of friends. They are either married mums or single ladies whom are not as crazy as my primary school friends (ahem...u know who you guys are), but they are very knowledgeable in all aspects of life. I really learned a lot of things through this trip apart from having fun and laughing like mad woman. I must say i'm really lucky to have friends from different background.
Let's talk about the 4 days 3 nights Bangkok trip. We had a bad start for this trip. 4 of us book a taxi to Changi Airport. Our flight is at 0715 but the driver came a pick us up at 0000. He drove bloody fast and we reach at Terminal 1 at 0215. We found a cafe and settled ourselves in the best possible position to catch some sleep. But i couldn't sleep at all. Luckily after we reached Bangkok, everything ran smoothly.
As this is a ladies trip which means shopping, we decided to stay just 300m away from a famous market - Pratunam Market, and i highly recommend this hotel, The Hotel 93. It is located at the back street not the main street, so tut tut or taxi may not able to know where is it when u told them, so we all just prepared ourselves with the hotel's name card which got the map printed on it, so the driver could figure out the way. It is a newly built 3 star hotel with very nice staff, quiet room (you need to stay at the highest floor which is 5th floor, and choose the one facing the back of the shop, not the one facing the market). The only drawback is the design of the toilet. The space between the basin and the toilet bowl is so small that you hardly could stand properly to brush teeth. So if you are pregnant, you might wanna stay at other hotel instead of this one. Overall i give 3.5 star out of 5 for this brand new hotel.
First day, we wanted to go to Asiatique, the newly riverfront market. Initially we took a cab but then the driver brought us to a gems store instead of Asiatique. After talking to the driver, we were told that they must bring the tourist to the gems shopping gallery for at least 15 minutes, while they will queue up for filling their government sponsored petrol, then only they will bring us to our destination. We took less than 5 minutes to finish the store partly because we didn't bring our husband there. hahahahahahaahha.... As the driver still queuing up for the petrol, he decided not to cheat on us and bring us to one BTS station (train station) without charging us. We then found out that we could easily reached Asiatique by train. We reached at the Asiatique train station at around 11 am. BUT it was not opened until 6pm. We quickly looked for other places to go such as Chocolate Ville but it would also opened around that time. I then spotted a sign that could safe all of us, Shangri-la Hotel. We were all very tired as we do not have sufficient sleep and we already walked quite a lot. Hoping to get some rest at the lobby, we all ended up walking towards the 5 star hotel.
We approached the hotel staff for any place to go before visiting Asiatique at 6pm. After all the information gathered, we decided to go for a good 2 hour massage and then high tea at Shangri-La Hotel. We had a very good experience in this 5 star hotel, they treated us like their VIP even though they knew we are not staying there. They explained to us again and again without showing any temper, they even called and book the massage for us. The massage was not too bad, but the high tea wasn't too impressive. Apparently, the staff told us to try the Mandarin Oriental high tea, they even told us that the Mandarin Oriental cafe in Siam Paragon mall is much cheaper than the one in the Hotel. But we need to do something just to pass our free time. Then we went to Asiatique by ferry. It is a brand new market with shops and classy stalls that you might wonder their price is higher than those sold in Pratunam or Chatuchak. But it was not always that case. At least we realized that the chinese oilment price was cheaper than Chinatown. Afterall, me and my sis did not get anything from there caused of my wrong perception. We then headed to Chinatown T&K seafood which is famous for their seafood and cheap price. This is a must go place and we went there for our dinner for two nights continuously.
On second day, we went to Chatuchak market which is located at the north side of our hotel. We went there by taxi and it took around 20 minutes to half an hour to reach there. It is a market as big as 5 foorball field. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we firstly stepped into this market, i knew we would spend a long time here. Things here are super cheap (the cheapest with good quality) and i think we only covered 10% of the market. We all bought a lot of things here and my back nearly broke. After begging them to go back to hotel at around 3pm, they finally agreed to leave the market. (Do not under estimate the power of shopping women!! i am not as crazy as them, i'm not fit physically!!) After leaving our things in hotel, we went to Chinatown for massage before having our dinner there, again. We did some shopping there and then headed to Skybar. There is a joke here that we did not really went up there as they have their dress code. Slippers are not allowed! We planned to go again the next day but we didn't go as we were too tired for that. Leaving no choice, we headed back to hotel and did some shopping in Pratunam market which is just a few steps away from our hotel. Too bad the market closed at 10 pm. But we still have chance to go again.
Third day, we went to Four Face Buddha and planned to go to the whole stretch of shopping malls. We met a police army while walking and looking for the malls, he told us a bad news, that the shopping malls will only open at 2pm because it was Queen's birthday. OH NO!!!!!!!!!! He asked us to go for a massage before going back to the malls again in the morning. Here we split into two groups, 3 going for massage early in the morning, and 3 going to Chatuchak market. After that all of us met at Siam Paragon Mall and went to their top high tea place, Mandarin Oriental. It was full when we reached and they do not take bookings or appointments. We almost gave up till we saw three pairs standing up and left the cafe. Again, thank god for that, if not, we would not have the chance to taste their classy pastries, macarons, puffs, and scones. Superb but expensive. This is my first time falling in love with high tea, my first time and will not be my last. We then did some shopping and that's where we met the Hong Kong Comedy Star - Wu Jun Ru. Without wanna make any unnecessary attention from public, we quickly took merely two photos with her and leave her and her daughter alone. We were all excited with this star and ahem, i'm the first who spotted and recognized her. Thanks to my parents for my bloody sharp eyes. Then we had simple dinner next to our hotel after had a BIG shopping in Big C hypermarket that we all brought a few boxes of instant noodle and seaweed back to the hotel. Just imagined, 6 lady, packing things into boxes, seal them up, putting them into trolley, moving from trolley to tut tut, then from tut tut to the hotel lobby. I think we are real tough women when it comes to shopping. Nothing beats woman! YEAH!!!!!
Fourth day, our last day, we did some shopping in Pratunam market and only we realized it is a very huge market (smaller than Chatuchak though) that consists of one main street, with many sub street on the left and right. We are running out of time to shop and i think most of us finished our cash money. We then had simple lunch nearby the hotel, and hair wash before heading back to hotel and wait for our dispatch van. Yes, we hired a VAN to carry our luggages and boxes. We went with 6 luggage and went back with 15 checked-in item. We were all very happy spending our money. I think i'll be black-listed by my friends' husband, because it seems everytime my name was mentioned. Yes, i am the masterplan of this trip. I planned the itinerary, I planned the route. Everything is good but the biggest mistake was i didn't check on their opening hours.
That goes my Bangkok Tai-Tai trip - shopping, massage, high tea.... What a nice trip.... It went so well that my friend strike first price by putting her bets on our van's car plate number. Thank god again... Amitabha........
