bangkok trip part one... sawatdee-kaa!!

ola... so here is the reason why i haven't been here, visiting my blog for quite sometime.
i went to bangkok!!

heh! it was a trip to be remembered, most assuredly... it was a trip arranged by my friend from smss and matrix, miss axlida... she invited me to go way back last year, because she wanted to book the airasia ticket early to get the cheapest price, and guess what? the flight only costed us about rm320 going and coming, eyay!!
It was a trip with friends... cha, also a colleague from smss and roommate from matrix, her friends, yusma and azira, and axlida's dental colleagues, k hana and k jiha...

Waktu mula2 plan nak pergi, fikir jugak macam mana nak bagitau abah ni, maklum la trip ke luar negara... kalau mi, ikutkan aje apa abah decide... it took me quite by surprise bila dia bagi pergi, heh...

And here goes the trip yang bak kata axlida, memang macam amazing race... because before going tu rasa cuak sebab waktu flight tiba di kl dari trg bezanya sejam lebih je dengan flight to bangkok... memang cuak la sempat ke tak nak check-in... thank God airasia ada web check-in... just kena drop luggage kalau ada (we planned on backpacking, tapi k jiha and k hana bawak jugak checked-in luggage sebab dia orang memang nak shopping habisan kat sana, heh!)and chop boarding pass yang dah siap print tu je...

Despite that, the race begins: 030210...

On board the flight to kl, kita orang usha stewardess tu sorang, nama dia kenchana, kalau tak silap, supaya bagi kitaorang keluar awal. Mula2 dia tak nak bagi. And then, came this charming steward, amir, discussing with us and finally they allowed us to sit at the hot rows in front... still, we made a scene by opening the overhead luggage before the airplane came to a complete stop... kena sembur sikit kat situ, heh... but, then, we were technically escorted from the plane to the arriving hall... tu pun siap terlajak sikit, berlari tak de brek kecemasan punya pasal... we checked-in, and ran again to the boarding hall...

this is us, dah selamat masuk boarding hall, baru la poyo tayang pasport masing-masing2...hehe

and then sampai kat suvarnabumi airport, bangkok.

at the airport, we went to a travel agency, bargaining a trip straight to the Grand Palace... it was almost 2.30 local time and the place closed @ 3.30... and so here we went again, racing amazingly...kehkehkeh...

from left: yusma, azira, me, cha, k hani and k jiha... axlida was the one taking this pic, apparently...

And yeah, we did arrive on time, Alhamdulillah... and the tour guide was kind enough to help us snapping pics... he was quite a photographer... always saying good...good...kinda funny, heh!

here's some pics he took.. quite a breathtaking scenery @ the Grand Palace... this place is on a very vast ground, i forgot the actual size... it housed the temple of Emerald Buddha and some other amazing looking buildings with intricate details of carving... not made of gold, however, but it did look like one.. it used to be the palace for the kings of Thailand before they have more modern structure somewhere else...and we went past it too... covered with trees, we couldn't really see the building.

We spent an hour @ the grand palace, since it closed to the visitors around 4.30... then, the tour guide brought us to a jewelry maker shop, to a tailor-made suit shop with its fabric costing hundred of ringgit malaysias! and oh, i forgot, the rate here is rm1=10 thai baht. So, their money is slightly cheaper than ours, glad to know that, heh! but of course, we won't spend it on suits which we hardly wear, so we went on...

We went to check into our hotel, Ibis Hotel down the Sathorn Road which apparently skirted around a number of embassies, such as Austria's, Denmark's and Malaysia's. We practically had to plead a little, since they wouldn't allow 7 people sharing two rooms. Our bad, i guess, nak jimat punya pasal, but we went on with that plan, anyway... kena pandai-pandaila, rite? takkan nak habiskan duit kat hotel, which we hardly stayed in.. ye la, pergi situ nak jalan2, bukan honeymoon!!:p

And that nite, we met with k hery, k jiha's friend who's been staying in bangkok for almost two years now, ALONE! Can you imagine that?And she took us to Suan Lum night market, quite nearby to the hotel.

that's k hery second from left... and besides her, with green tudung is axlida...

Then, k hery took us walking around the hectic night life of bangkok to one of halal restaurant there... on the way tu siap nampak orang jual pil viagra bersepah tepi jalan... aduih, masalah!!

muka penat dah banyak sangat jalan...

the food was yummy-yummy delicious, though... ngantuk2 pun makan banyak jugak... heheh...

Dah kenyang, dah berat mata, we went back to the hotel to catch our very much needed sleep, even while anxious for tomorrow...

040210...

Pattaya!!

We spent half a day there enjoying the beautiful beach and squinting our eyes against the more unpleasant sight of foreigners displaying their bodies...duh! no pics here of that, of course!!

We went back to bangkok, stopped @ a mosque to pray (yup, ada masjid, walaupun tak sebanyak temples, at least ada, Alhamdulillah..), stopped again @ a factory outlet, which was not what we wanted it to be, so we moved on to bangkok, half-sleeping, half-laughing @ axlida's fruitless attempt of talking and explaining things to the driver who didn't speak english... heh, so how did we interact with him? Sometimes, through drawing, sign language, and the desperate last resort was to call his agent who could speak english, heh, kelakar... he was very nice, though...

And that nite, we took the MRT from satani Lumphini (that's Lumphini station, for those of u who can't understand Thai yet, heh! berlagak!)which was closest to our hotel and went shopping!!

Er, technically, we went to a couple of the shopping malls there in bangkok...MBK and Siam Centre... there was another one, Siam Paragon, which is equivalent to our Pavilion, housing the brands we can hardly afford, so we didn't go there... tak nak buang masa, weh... we did not buy much on that nite, tak de sangat yang berkenan, mostly kat situ local brands, but cha, yusma and azira did bargain for thai silks and bought a whole load of them each...
Then, we went to k hery's house to eat because we were terribly-terribly hungry, and she cooked us tomyam and nasi... (isk, terharu...)and we went back to the hotel after that to crash land on our beds... zzz...

forward to second part, key...