Sights and Sounds of Bangkok!

It's a very, very, very big city and its noisy. Constantly noisy.

I think I've mentioned that in my last few posts. You just can't imagine the level of noise here, its as high as their pollution level! Just standing by the street for a few minutes to wait for a taxi and I feel like I've been enveloped by a blanket of soot. I'm constantly using wet wipes, facial wipes and sanitisers here. I'm no Adrian Monk, don't get the wrong idea. I'm usually quite used to being grubby, but my level of grubbiness here has increased tenfold that I'm so conscious of it.

Well, I spend some time in between shopping to explore a bit of Bangkok on my own. I found out about church, and mass times, English mass times. Google was my best friend for a while. It took me everywhere and told me everything I needed to know about Bangkok. So the second Sunday of my stay here, I made my way to St John's Church, which is nearby Chatuchak Market. Found my way there quite easily, after many sign languages and once I learned that to say church in Thai is 'bod'. It was a small church, which is located on the grounds of St John's International School. The mass was said by a French priest, and surprisingly it was mostly the Filipinos that attended the mass. It was a very nice, cosy church.

Interior of St John's Church

The next Sunday I went for mass at the Assumption Cathedral. It is located within the Assumption University grounds next to the Chao Phraya river. I got to the church easily this time, after Google told me how to. From the BTS station I had a nice walk to the church, passing by little shops, a big hotel, small shopping mall, street vendors and many, many people. To get to the church its best to head to Oriental Hotel, then from there you can ask the doorman directions, its actually just around the corner, but its somewhat hidden. Once I turned the corner, I was greeted by the sight of a beautiful church.

The entrance of Assumption Cathedral

I got there just in time for mass to begin. It's a very big church and not crowded. I'm comparing this to the Assumption Church in PJ. It's beautifully designed and well maintained too. The mass was said by an English priest and this time there were a variety of people who attended mass. I loved it here so much I came back for mass here when I could.

The Altar

In my last few days here, I had a friend visiting and we went touristing around Bangkok. We took a river cruise on the Chao Phraya River, we saw a weird looking snake head-alligator body animal in the water right under the houses. The boatman was very excited to us show this, I was very scared and kept telling him 'okay, we've seen enough, let's move on,' which he obviously didn't get.

Do you know what this is?

We saw lots of temples along the way, a snake farm and a crocodile farm too. We didn't stop at any of this though, I wasn't to keen to get up close with the creepy crawlies. Besides this, there was nothing much to see. I wouldn't recommend the canal river trip. Instead take the longer trips that gets you to Ayutthaya.

The temples were pretty much alike. We went to the Temple of the Golden Buddha and the Grand Palace - also the place for the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was a very hot day to be walking around, so that's why I didn't enjoy it very much. Make sure you have on a good pair of walking shoes, water bottle, a hat or umbrella and sunglasses.

Temple of the Golden Buddha

Entrance to Grand Palace

The Royal Grand Palace

 Besides the temples and palace, there are many more things to see around Bangkok. But a few days is not enough to cover the whole of Bangkok. I was here for about 7 weeks and I couldn't cover the whole of Bangkok too.

Traffic in Bangkok is just horrendous, so don't bother renting a car while you're visiting. Much faster to get around in their taxis or tuk-tuk. The taxis are either, new Altis or Camry, or the older ones use Sentra and Corrolla's, they are all in bright colours so its easy to spot them from far. I enjoyed the tuk-tuk ride, I wish I could drive one.

Bangkok Taxi

Tuk-Tuk

The 'songteow' is another cheap transport that can get you around. For about 6 baht which is equivalant to Malaysian Ringgit 60 cents you get to your destination. But these 'songteow' are like buses, they have numbers on their roofs and the ply a fixed route.

The 'Songteow'

Bangkok life is constantly moving. There seem no end to the things that goes on. At night, places like Khaosan Road comes alive. This is like a little cowboy town. Many tourist - backpacking tourist choose to stay here, because its cheap and you can get almost everything cheap on this road. Rooms here can cost as little as RM40 a night. Same say there's even cheaper.

Khaosan Road Nightlife

Another place that is constantly bustling is Yaowarat Road, or better know as Bangkok's Chinatown. Lanes and lanes that are endless and winding, there is simply no beginning and no ending to the roads at Yaowarat.

A very small part of Yaowarat Road

These are just about some of the things in Bangkok, there are actually a whole lot more. I've just peeled off one layer. I hope that I can come back here again soon.

Shopping in Bangkok!

Written on July 2, 2010

The next best thing to Bangkok other than food is the SHOPPING!!!

Almost all the major shopping areas in Bangkok is connected to a BTS Skytrain or MRT station, making it so much easier to shop. From the station you can walk straight into a shopping mall via the bridges. No need to walk on the busy Bangkok roads. The LRT in Malaysia should take note of this.

The BTS Skytrain

Interior of BTS Skytrain

Once you get to either the MRT or BTS, get yourself a map. Its the best thing to help you get around. I relied a lot on this. I used the stations as my point of reference when I'm checking on where to go. It's quite straight forward, even the signages are well placed. So you shouldn't have a problem getting around unless you are really, I mean really bad with directions.

The sign at a BTS Station that points you to the last station.

There's lots of shopping malls in Bangkok that can rival KL anytime. The Mall Bang Kapi was the first mall that I stepped into. It was my first day in Bangkok and I was brought there so that I could get some food for the next few days. The supermarket reminded me a lot like Jaya Jusco, but it wasn't. I was glad that I could get lots of stuff here that you won't usually find on our supermarket shelves in KL, and they're cheap too.

The first weekend, I went to MBK shopping mall which is quite similiar to our Sungai Wang Plaza. Again, the food here was alright, the things to shop here was great!! I found some nice short sleeved shirts here for only RM20. I may sound overly excited and surprised, but that's because I could never find nice, like really nice short sleeved cotton shirts for myself in KL.

MBK Shopping Mall - great bargains to be found here

There's also Pratunam Market, more like Petaling Street style and Platinum Fashion Mall across the street from it, which has air-conditioning. Then there's Prantip Plaza which is an IT mall, where you can get IPhone for as low as RM500, I have no idea where its from though. From here the mall gets more upscale. Emporium and Siam Discovery is for the sophisticated, Siam Paragon is for the yuppies.

The trendy Siam Paragon

Sadly though I couldn't visit CentralWorld because it was still closed due to the recent unrest. I took the BTS and its passed right beside it, I could see the burned area. It looks sad that Bangkok's pride of the shopping malls was damaged. But its set to return soon!!

Besides the malls, Bangkok also has 2 famous street markets. Suan Lum Night Bazzar is only opened from 7pm till late and has rows and rows of stalls that sells almost anything. Lots of bargaining goes on here, and you must really bargain to get the good deals.

The entrance to Suan Lum Night Bazaar

The shops are well lit and airy too!

Chatuchak Weekend Market is another famous shopping spot. Here, there are rows, rows, rows, rows and rows of stalls that sells everything, I mean really EVERYTHING!! You want to get a live lizard, branded shoes and bags, paintings, house decor and cutlery and clothes and plants and accessories, here's the place to go and get them dirt cheap. They even have 'movers' office here to help you ship your things back. You will need to put on your best bargaining skills. It's amazing yah!! I went there almost every weekend and still I find new shops.

So, go around visit all the malls first and then when you're done with that, then only you go to Chatuchak to do your shopping. It the best place to buy presents too!!

The layout of the entire Chatuchak market.

Access to all these shopping place is easy, just hop onto the MRT or BTS and it takes you straight to the front door of the malls and markets. The trains are fast, punctual, cheap, air-conditioned and CLEAN!

Don't worry about food or drinks. It can be found in abundance at every corner of Bangkok.

Next trip : the Sights and Sounds of Bangkok!

Bangkok in school and its food!

Written on June 21, 2010.

Bangkok is turning out to be a really fun and exciting place to be for me!! I've begun teaching in the school and have been out and about town since my 1st weekend here. So far, everything is going great!

I'm based in Prawet, a district near the Suvarnabhumi Airport - its pronounced as sur-va-nah-bum. It was mostly a residential area. Actually in Bangkok there is no clear definition as to where there are industrial, residential and business area. It's just all mixed up. For example, just at the entrance to my apartment there is a factory and right next to it a block of flats on the right and a house on the left followed by a restaurant cum house next to it. Here'a a view from my balcony!

Looking at it, its hard to tell what building is what until you go closer and have a look. Just opposite the main road is a big private hospital too. Things are just so random here. Then there is always lots of big rivers and there was one flowing just behind my apartment block. Again, you can see the brown roof huts is an entertainment outlet, sound like a karaoke place to me and just behind that is a cluster of houses.

Then I noticed this guy on a raft in the river, at first it looked like he was fishing then he was messing with the vegetation there, of course I thought that was like food for him. But I found out later from the reception lady of my apartment that I was wrong, he was moving the plants away so that the mosquitoes don't breed there. Such things that I amuse myself with on a Saturday morning.

I was posted at St George's International School, it was a very beautiful and eco-friendly school. They had a huge playground, a football field and a swimming pool. Here is the entrance to the school. The building on the right is the office. It looks grand, doesn't it!

The classrooms in this school were really big and spacious. I had only 8 children in my class and a teaching assistant too!! It was grand. All the teachers here are foreigners from England, Scotland and Australia, while the teaching assistants and office staff were Thais. Overall, they were all very friendly, welcoming and helpful throughout my stint here.

I've been out to a few places in Bangkok but not to all the major tourist spots yet! I'm saving that for later. The food here has been great too. At school they serve a mixture of western and local Thai food for lunch, so i've been enjoying it all!! Then the food by the roadsides too are great, although most time I don't really know what it is. I try to find out with some of my basic Thai and lots of hand and sign language. But I've learned to just 'whack' only.

Desert : Crispy pancake filled with cream and carrots. They have it with other fillings too!

Thai's equivalent to 'satay' and can be found at every street corner.

Mixed rice

Pork stir fried with peppercorns. It's really spicy!

Roadside stalls like these can be found on almost every street.

A simple dinner

Pad Thai Noodles

Fried Bugs!! I couldn't bring myself to try any of it!

Red Tom Yum Goong

Clear Tom Yum Goong

My favourite Thai food - beef noodles (Pho Bo)

Thai Papaya Salad with Salted Crab

RegularThai Papaya Salad

I've had so many types of different Thai food, its amazing that there is still much more to go. I will definitely be exploring more. I also love the coconut water, here its sweeter and the pink guava. It's very refreshing to bite into it after spending the whole day walking around in the heat.

I've arrived in Bangkok!

So, now I'm in Bangkok. To be exact I'm about 25 minutes from Central Bangkok and 15 minutes from the airport. I had pleasant flight with Thai Airways. Going through the Suvarnabhumi Airport, I had a long way walk out to the Immigration area and then to the waiting area. I was met by the manager of the Thailand office. He's Malaysian, so that was a good start.

We got into a taxi and headed straight for the serviced apartment that I was going to be staying in. Found out that he and another staff lives there too. So I won't be completely on my own. Phew!! Then I got into the apartment and I immediately liked the place. It was nice, clean, and well equipped.

I have a living room,

dining table,

a small kitchen, where I can do some cooking

a very big bed

a bathtub

and a balcony with a view!!

The view of the swimming pool from my balcony.

So, I'm going to just kickback and enjoy this place for now!!

It's simple and superb!

WOW!!!

Wow!!

It's been that long since my last posting. So much has been happening, its a wonder that I have time for anything else. I got a call one Friday evening from my school. I was wondering what I had not done or had done wrong while I was picking up the call. It was the admin, she called and very happily, secretively wanting to tell me some good news. She asked if I wanted to go to Bangkok to teach. I was like What??? Of course I want to. Forgetting about the trouble that was going on there I excitedly said YES!! I'm interested!!

So she passes on the call to our Manager, he explains the reason, duration and other details. So, I said that 'yes, I am interested, but I need some time to think about it'. So I immediately sms Debbie and told her about it. What a scolding I got for even considering of going to Bangkok at this time. So I kind of thought so maybe I shouldn't go. Then I spoke to Mel, and she said, well check it out first. She asked her friend who was in Bangkok or something like that and it seemed that it was okay to go now. I went online too, to check where exactly I will be and it looked all right.

The next call I got was from my principal, she was not happy that I was asked to go before consulting her. I understand her reason, with two teachers on maternity, it was tough enough. Also, the situation in Bangkok is something to worry about. So, we said we will give it a day or two and then decide about it.

The whole day I was consumed with indecision, Should I go, should I not go!!

Sunday came around and I was lying on the couch watching some travel show on Astro, and thinking to myself "Why not?" So, I called my principal and told her, yes I want to go, but I need to go and get a passport first then only I can confirm. I knew that she reluctantly agreed that okay yah...its an opportunity that I shouldn't miss.

Monday came around and I found out that I was to leave by Sunday. Gosh!!! That was really quick! So, rushed around the whole week to get my things done and also my passport. The best thing is you can get you passport done within two hours at Putrajaya. From the time I parked my car and to the time I got out to my car it took exactly 1 hour and 48 minutes. Cool right!!

So now, I'm off to Bangkok!!