I’m a planner and I try to plan way in advance. Being kiasu, I make it a point to find out the following year’s public holidays and try to plan early. For instance, I purchased ticket for my trip to Europe this year back in August 2011 (although I only finalised the places to visit in February/March this year) to avail of the online offer. This Malaysia Day weekend trip was planned in end-January 2012.
Friday, 14 September 2012
I left office and made my way to KLIA. Arrived 10 minutes past 8 pm and the check-in queue was already long. Y, my old room-mate, was already there. We had agreed not to check in our bags as we would be landing after 11 pm local time and the last airport train to the city was at 2351.
It was our first time flying Royal Jordanian and the flight was full with students who came back for Eid/summer holidays and now returning to Jordan for their new semester. In fact, the lady at our check-in counter said the flight was overbooked.
We landed at a wet Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2330 and I rushed out and trekked the distance to the immigration. I had promised Yin I would wait for her there but I needn’t worry as the queues were short. But she took her time and when she arrived, she told me she had yet to fill up her landing card.
We hurried to the Basement level of the terminal building to catch the train and made it with seconds to spare. Phew! We rode the train to Phaya Thai, the last station. Journey took only 25 minutes and cost THB45. The rain had stopped when we arrived and we took a cab to our hotel, not before bargaining the fare. Honestly, why can’t they just use the metre?? We finally found our hotel, tucked in a small soi and checked in.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
We both slept late last night, to be precise we only went to be after 1 am this morning. Woke after 5 am to perform morning prayers and tried to sleep again. I finally got up at 8, finally admitting defeat to my plan on catching up on sleep.
We left after breakfast and walked over to Petchaburi Road via Pratunam Market. We crossed over to Diamond Hotel and waited for bus no. 113 to take us to Hua Lamphong train station. The journey took 20 minutes (I timed, but of course) and cost only THB8 as the bus was not air-conditioned. We bought an express train ticket to Ayutthaya for THB245 each, leaving at 1005 and scheduled to arrive at 1124.
The train arrived and I was surprised to see there were only four cars, two for third class (ticket for third class was THB20!) and two for second class. We reached Ayutthaya after eight stops and went to the ticket office to buy ticket for our return trip, only to be told the counter would sell tickets 20 minutes before departure. So we walked out of the station and ignored the tuk tuk drivers who accosted us and walked to Riverside Hotel to ask for directions. The concierge suggested, in halting English, for us to ride a tuk tuk and said it would only cost us THB20 per hour. ‘Twenty Baht?’ we asked several times for confirmation until he finally wrote it down. It turned out it was THB200 per hour. Thai speak very limited English in general (you’d have thought with the number of foreign tourists the country attracts, they’d at least brush up on their English but no). He also told us the historic city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is some 5 km away. We agreed to his suggestion. Well, you could ride a bike and cycle around – provided you know the direction (hardly any from what I saw) – but we both sucked at cycling.
Our first stop was Wat Mahathat, located at the east of the grand palace (entrance fee was THB50). It is the royal temple and most sacred in Ayutthaya during the glorious time. This monastery was once the residence of the supreme patriarch. We spent half an hour there before heading to the neighbouring wat, Wat Ratchaburana. We paid our THB50 entrance fee and went in. This wat was built by King Boromracha II (Chao Samphraya) for his coronation ceremony. We explored the grounds and I even climbed up. We spent 15 minutes here before leaving.
We then travelled about two km away to Wat Chaiwattanaram, built by King Prasat Thong to commemorate his mother’s hometown and his coronation, and also the victory over the Khmer. It was built in the Khmer architectural style which I thought is strange: why build it in the style of your enemy? No entrance fee was imposed here, probably because the wat was cordoned off. Nevertheless, of the three wats we had been so far, this wat was the most ‘complete’ as the earlier two we visited were seriously damaged by fire. We spent less than 15 minutes here.
Our last stop was Wat Lokayasutha in the west with the reclining Buddha. We declined the flowers on sale and left less than 10 minutes later.
Our tuk tuk driver then drove us back to the hotel and when we asked where we could have halal lunch, he agreed to take us to a halal restaurant but insisting we be done within 20 minutes (his 2-hour time with us was ticking away). So we had a somewhat hurried lunch. I had duck noodles.
He dropped us back at the train station and we paid and thanked him and parted ways. Then we went in and sat down to wait.
The ticket counter finally opened at 5 to 3; turned out the train time was rescheduled to 1515 (instead of 1530). Our ticket back to Bangkok cost THB125. Strange, we thought but didn’t question further. We were assigned seats next to other strangers though but at least the passengers who boarded before us didn’t sit at our seats.
We reached Bangkok at 5 pm and only realised it had rained earlier when we saw the wet roads. We asked for directions and crossed over to Bangkok Bank to wait for bus no. 73 back to Pratunam. It started raining as we reached Pratunam and we walked back to the hotel in the increasingly heavy rain.
We ventured out at 7 pm to look for dinner. Alas, the nearby malls and food courts were starting to close for the day so we returned to our room and had instant noodles instead. I was geared up to watch the Arsenal-Southampton match; alas, it was not shown live and had to depend on live feed instead. 65 channels (OK, maybe about 60 stations; the other 5 showed blank screen) and not a single one showed my match?! Two channels showed the ManUre match: a cable station and a local station. Outrageous!!! So I missed all the goals and could only watch a repeat of them on Arsenal Player.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Today was a day for shopping. We left after breakfast at around 0930 local time and went to Shibuya 19, a wholesale mall nearby. Most shops were only just opening and what little I saw didn’t really catch my fancy. Then we crossed over to Platinum Fashion Mall. There were more people here but despite the five levels of shops, I wasn’t much tempted. We met again and went over to CentralWorld. I lost track of time and went to our agreed meeting place an hour earlier, reasoning it couldn’t have just been an hour since we parted ways (for I had already gone all the way out to the ‘sky walk’ and to President Tower Arcade. All that in an hour? Surely not but it seemed to be the case). After waiting 15 minutes for Y, texting her and trying to call her (no connection), I went to find the Arsenal store. But it was there no more. All the directories I looked at still had Arsenal store listed at E304 so I was not amused when I found Giordano in its place instead. FFS. That really put me in a bad mood and I lost my desire to shop. I was also looking for a pair of red Converse so I tried to console myself by looking for it. Only there was no Converse store in the whole CentralWorld but I finally managed to find some Converse shoes in Sports store (and also at Zen). I had set my eyes on Chuck Taylor All Star but saw Star Player EV and was in a dilemma. The former cost THB1050 and the latter cost a marginal THB50 more or THB1100.
I went to met Y and we then went to find lunch. There’s no food court in CentralWorld so we walked out and walked over to Siam Paragon. Not satisfied with the choices, we went to Siam Discovery (‘We don’t have food court, only restaurants,’ the girl at the info counter informed) before crossing over to MBK diagonally across the intersection.
It started drizzling as we walked to Siam Paragon and still pissing rain when we left MBK. We returned to Siam Discovery and to the newly opened Converse store there. Y helped me made up my mind and so I left with a pair of red Converse Star Player EV. Mission finally accomplished.
We returned to CentralWorld for another hour plus before leaving at 7. Dinner was had in the room.
But bought this pair instead. No regrets though. My sixth pair of Converse ☺
Monday, 17 September 2012
Our last morning. Y left early as she wanted to go for a massage. I wasn’t too impressed with the options: aromatherapy or Thai massage. No hot stone massage or other variety of massage? OK then. I left after breakfast and went to explore the back area but increasingly got put off with the traffic so I left and walked to Gaysorn. OK, I can confirm that although Converse cost less there, Marks & Spencer, Chanel and Louis Vuitton cost so much more. I crossed over to CentralWorld (back there again!) but left after 40 minutes empty-handed.
Back to the hotel and completed my packing. Y returned shortly after with some food stuff. We performed prayers and rested before checking out at 1245 (we had earlier requested to check out at 1 today). Took a can to Ratchaprapop station (again, had to bargain the fare down to THB80) to catch the train back to the airport. We were caught in a bad crawl – seriously, it would have taken less time to just walk! – and missed the train by 3 minutes.
The check-in queue was long and this time, the flight was co-shared with MAS. I went to find retail therapy and only rushed to the gate at 4. We took off after 1615 and landed at KLIA at 1930.
As fun as I find Bangkok, it will be some time before I return, I think.
~~~~~~~~
Giroud returned to Montpellier as the Gunners visited the ground for their opening Champions League group match. Diaby collected the fastest yellow card ever issued and the captain’s clumsy challenge on Belhanda but Prinz Poldi restored parity shortly after from a Giroud pass. Gorgeous was also involved in the second goal when he passed the ball to Jenkinson who in turn fed Gervinho. This was our second match of seven in 21 days (after no football due to stupid international matches, we will now have a lot of football before the next meaningless international break) and while we worked hard, counter-attacked intelligently and finished decisively, it was not a classic Arsenal performance.
Friday, 14 September 2012
I left office and made my way to KLIA. Arrived 10 minutes past 8 pm and the check-in queue was already long. Y, my old room-mate, was already there. We had agreed not to check in our bags as we would be landing after 11 pm local time and the last airport train to the city was at 2351.
It was our first time flying Royal Jordanian and the flight was full with students who came back for Eid/summer holidays and now returning to Jordan for their new semester. In fact, the lady at our check-in counter said the flight was overbooked.
We landed at a wet Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2330 and I rushed out and trekked the distance to the immigration. I had promised Yin I would wait for her there but I needn’t worry as the queues were short. But she took her time and when she arrived, she told me she had yet to fill up her landing card.
We hurried to the Basement level of the terminal building to catch the train and made it with seconds to spare. Phew! We rode the train to Phaya Thai, the last station. Journey took only 25 minutes and cost THB45. The rain had stopped when we arrived and we took a cab to our hotel, not before bargaining the fare. Honestly, why can’t they just use the metre?? We finally found our hotel, tucked in a small soi and checked in.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
We both slept late last night, to be precise we only went to be after 1 am this morning. Woke after 5 am to perform morning prayers and tried to sleep again. I finally got up at 8, finally admitting defeat to my plan on catching up on sleep.
We left after breakfast and walked over to Petchaburi Road via Pratunam Market. We crossed over to Diamond Hotel and waited for bus no. 113 to take us to Hua Lamphong train station. The journey took 20 minutes (I timed, but of course) and cost only THB8 as the bus was not air-conditioned. We bought an express train ticket to Ayutthaya for THB245 each, leaving at 1005 and scheduled to arrive at 1124.
The train arrived and I was surprised to see there were only four cars, two for third class (ticket for third class was THB20!) and two for second class. We reached Ayutthaya after eight stops and went to the ticket office to buy ticket for our return trip, only to be told the counter would sell tickets 20 minutes before departure. So we walked out of the station and ignored the tuk tuk drivers who accosted us and walked to Riverside Hotel to ask for directions. The concierge suggested, in halting English, for us to ride a tuk tuk and said it would only cost us THB20 per hour. ‘Twenty Baht?’ we asked several times for confirmation until he finally wrote it down. It turned out it was THB200 per hour. Thai speak very limited English in general (you’d have thought with the number of foreign tourists the country attracts, they’d at least brush up on their English but no). He also told us the historic city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is some 5 km away. We agreed to his suggestion. Well, you could ride a bike and cycle around – provided you know the direction (hardly any from what I saw) – but we both sucked at cycling.
Our first stop was Wat Mahathat, located at the east of the grand palace (entrance fee was THB50). It is the royal temple and most sacred in Ayutthaya during the glorious time. This monastery was once the residence of the supreme patriarch. We spent half an hour there before heading to the neighbouring wat, Wat Ratchaburana. We paid our THB50 entrance fee and went in. This wat was built by King Boromracha II (Chao Samphraya) for his coronation ceremony. We explored the grounds and I even climbed up. We spent 15 minutes here before leaving.
We then travelled about two km away to Wat Chaiwattanaram, built by King Prasat Thong to commemorate his mother’s hometown and his coronation, and also the victory over the Khmer. It was built in the Khmer architectural style which I thought is strange: why build it in the style of your enemy? No entrance fee was imposed here, probably because the wat was cordoned off. Nevertheless, of the three wats we had been so far, this wat was the most ‘complete’ as the earlier two we visited were seriously damaged by fire. We spent less than 15 minutes here.
Our last stop was Wat Lokayasutha in the west with the reclining Buddha. We declined the flowers on sale and left less than 10 minutes later.
Our tuk tuk driver then drove us back to the hotel and when we asked where we could have halal lunch, he agreed to take us to a halal restaurant but insisting we be done within 20 minutes (his 2-hour time with us was ticking away). So we had a somewhat hurried lunch. I had duck noodles.
He dropped us back at the train station and we paid and thanked him and parted ways. Then we went in and sat down to wait.
The ticket counter finally opened at 5 to 3; turned out the train time was rescheduled to 1515 (instead of 1530). Our ticket back to Bangkok cost THB125. Strange, we thought but didn’t question further. We were assigned seats next to other strangers though but at least the passengers who boarded before us didn’t sit at our seats.
We reached Bangkok at 5 pm and only realised it had rained earlier when we saw the wet roads. We asked for directions and crossed over to Bangkok Bank to wait for bus no. 73 back to Pratunam. It started raining as we reached Pratunam and we walked back to the hotel in the increasingly heavy rain.
We ventured out at 7 pm to look for dinner. Alas, the nearby malls and food courts were starting to close for the day so we returned to our room and had instant noodles instead. I was geared up to watch the Arsenal-Southampton match; alas, it was not shown live and had to depend on live feed instead. 65 channels (OK, maybe about 60 stations; the other 5 showed blank screen) and not a single one showed my match?! Two channels showed the ManUre match: a cable station and a local station. Outrageous!!! So I missed all the goals and could only watch a repeat of them on Arsenal Player.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Today was a day for shopping. We left after breakfast at around 0930 local time and went to Shibuya 19, a wholesale mall nearby. Most shops were only just opening and what little I saw didn’t really catch my fancy. Then we crossed over to Platinum Fashion Mall. There were more people here but despite the five levels of shops, I wasn’t much tempted. We met again and went over to CentralWorld. I lost track of time and went to our agreed meeting place an hour earlier, reasoning it couldn’t have just been an hour since we parted ways (for I had already gone all the way out to the ‘sky walk’ and to President Tower Arcade. All that in an hour? Surely not but it seemed to be the case). After waiting 15 minutes for Y, texting her and trying to call her (no connection), I went to find the Arsenal store. But it was there no more. All the directories I looked at still had Arsenal store listed at E304 so I was not amused when I found Giordano in its place instead. FFS. That really put me in a bad mood and I lost my desire to shop. I was also looking for a pair of red Converse so I tried to console myself by looking for it. Only there was no Converse store in the whole CentralWorld but I finally managed to find some Converse shoes in Sports store (and also at Zen). I had set my eyes on Chuck Taylor All Star but saw Star Player EV and was in a dilemma. The former cost THB1050 and the latter cost a marginal THB50 more or THB1100.
I went to met Y and we then went to find lunch. There’s no food court in CentralWorld so we walked out and walked over to Siam Paragon. Not satisfied with the choices, we went to Siam Discovery (‘We don’t have food court, only restaurants,’ the girl at the info counter informed) before crossing over to MBK diagonally across the intersection.
It started drizzling as we walked to Siam Paragon and still pissing rain when we left MBK. We returned to Siam Discovery and to the newly opened Converse store there. Y helped me made up my mind and so I left with a pair of red Converse Star Player EV. Mission finally accomplished.
We returned to CentralWorld for another hour plus before leaving at 7. Dinner was had in the room.
I had set out to buy this pair
But bought this pair instead. No regrets though. My sixth pair of Converse ☺ Monday, 17 September 2012
Our last morning. Y left early as she wanted to go for a massage. I wasn’t too impressed with the options: aromatherapy or Thai massage. No hot stone massage or other variety of massage? OK then. I left after breakfast and went to explore the back area but increasingly got put off with the traffic so I left and walked to Gaysorn. OK, I can confirm that although Converse cost less there, Marks & Spencer, Chanel and Louis Vuitton cost so much more. I crossed over to CentralWorld (back there again!) but left after 40 minutes empty-handed.
Back to the hotel and completed my packing. Y returned shortly after with some food stuff. We performed prayers and rested before checking out at 1245 (we had earlier requested to check out at 1 today). Took a can to Ratchaprapop station (again, had to bargain the fare down to THB80) to catch the train back to the airport. We were caught in a bad crawl – seriously, it would have taken less time to just walk! – and missed the train by 3 minutes.
The check-in queue was long and this time, the flight was co-shared with MAS. I went to find retail therapy and only rushed to the gate at 4. We took off after 1615 and landed at KLIA at 1930.
As fun as I find Bangkok, it will be some time before I return, I think.
~~~~~~~~
Giroud returned to Montpellier as the Gunners visited the ground for their opening Champions League group match. Diaby collected the fastest yellow card ever issued and the captain’s clumsy challenge on Belhanda but Prinz Poldi restored parity shortly after from a Giroud pass. Gorgeous was also involved in the second goal when he passed the ball to Jenkinson who in turn fed Gervinho. This was our second match of seven in 21 days (after no football due to stupid international matches, we will now have a lot of football before the next meaningless international break) and while we worked hard, counter-attacked intelligently and finished decisively, it was not a classic Arsenal performance.
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