Friday, July 22, 2005
Bangkok Day 2
View from the Hotel Room. Nice hor? 
A Group of Pretty Artistic Bush Taken on our way to the BTS (Bangkok Skytrain).
Chaktuchak Weekend Market!!
Yup, we went to famous
Chaktuchak market on Saturday morning. Took a shuttle bus from the hotel to the BTS, and then took the train to the station lor! After that we walked a bit, and we reach the market le. So clever...haha. Because none of us had any idea where it was...except that from the map it looked pretty near the
Mo Chit Station.
Anyway, we split from C and S after we reached there, because we have to shop, it doesn't make sense for 4 people to tag around each other...so we split into 2 groups. Also good lar, because in this way at least we can have some coupley time together lor...
Hehe. Anyway luckily we split from them!! Apparently in the end they got stucked at the clothes section for the whole 2 hours, while clement and I had a good look-around at the market.
For starters, there were a lot of shops selling clothes (that's why my friends got stucked there), but then since we weren't looking so much for clothes, we had much more to see. There were so many sections! Got section selling antiques, selling decor stuffs, selling shoes, bags, clothes, even pets!! The
pets sections was real fun, because there were some exotic ones (think iguana?) and also cute ones! That include rabbits, puppies, kittens, even chicks! Then there were birds also. So many...that we were both so amazed! I love those puppies the most! They were trying hard to bark, in the end it sounded like little squeaks. Made them very endearing wor...
But then again some of the stall holders were rather mean (I won't say cruel), their pets (that they wanted to sell) were sleeping, and so they kept hitting the cage, hitting the basket, trying to make them awake and trying to make them move. It's to show that their pets are okay lar...but I find that action a bit disturbing lor. So poor thing!!!
Anyway after that we weaved in and out of the shops at
Chaktuchak. It's very possible to get lost inside man, because there are rows and rows of shops in there and the structure is very uniform. If not for clement, I would have gotten lost in there liao. Haha. And everytime we weave in and out one row, we see shops selling different things. Think we never went back to the same shop again lor. After the pets, we saw the clothes section, and there were many shops selling jeans. All the fake ones lar...haha. But as we all know, Thailand is famous for all its
conterfeit goods. Enough said.
Clement and I spotted this shoe shop selling fake
Birkenstocks. Okies, so being the cheapo us, wanted to buy 2 pairs so that we can bargain for a cheaper price. Hehe.
Anyway we couldn't find the perfect one because the auntie ran out of sizes for the colour. So in the end we decided to find another shop that will sell the same thing. True enough, after weaving in and out (amidst looking at stuffs) we found another shop selling Birkies too! And they have my size for the colour! So happie. So clement and I bargained with the guy lor. It cost 199B for a pair, and we pushed it to 185B. Good enough...it's like, S$7 only lor...cheap enough for a pair of shoes actually. Hehe.
So now the both of us have
couple shoes! Yay!
And then after that we walked somemore, somehow got to the section selling clothes again! There was this store where all tops are only 69B! that's about S$3 for a top! Very cheap wor. Hehe. And the designs are nice, I think it's some Thai designer's work actually. I bought 1 top, and since there's no way to try, I didn't buy somemore. And the stall owner was like "You can wear, don't worry". Clement on the other hand, was telling me not to buy more than 1, what if cannot fit? So okies lor...bought only 1 top. Actually clement asked whether got any reduction, the lady said no more...so well, I just paid up. It's cheap enough lar...in my opinion. And hor, somemore we both thought the top was 99B, since there were signs with "99B" all over the place mah.
After that we continued to walk on inside the market. Well, it's amazing in there, because some of the stallholders are apparently better off, so they even installed air-conditioner for their stall. So among a row of shops, there will be 1 or 2 that's tightly sealed, with a sliding door. That will be the
air-conditioned stall lor. It's such a god-send! Haha. Because the weather was so warm and the roof were acutally all zinc...so it's like, trapping heat within the market. We found this shop that looked like a pharmacy, and it's air-conditioned! So we decided to be cheapo lor...go in and blow air-con. Anyway my mom did asked me to buy some medicated shampoo for her which can only be found in Thailand, so I decided to try my luck also.
In the end, have wor...so I bought 2 bottles for my mom. Didn't know what was the market rate so didn't dare to buy too many bottles (in case too expensive). Actually I think
Chaktuchak is the cheapest liao lar!! Haha. So we lingered inside the pharmacy until we both shiok liao, then stepped out to continue walking.
I think we walked and walked for the whole 2 hours lor, and since it's a bit crowded, also have to weave in and out. And for the whole time I was clutching my bag...well, there's a lot of cases whereby people get pickpocketed, or bag got slashed. So have to be extra careful lor...
Anyway we met our friends around 2pm outside the market lor. Since they were late, so we just waited for them under a tree. The weather was scorching! Anyway there were funny sights and sounds in Thailand lor. There was this
tuk-tuk which sat 5 caucasians! Normal tuk tuk can sit 2 people comfortably and 3 at most...and that tuk tuk can seat 5 people okies! It's a mean feat man...haha. Too bad they were moving too fast...didn't get a chance to take photo of them. Hehe.
Anyway after waiting for 15 mins or so the 2 of them turned up at last, so we took a cab down to Chinatown for lunch and more shopping! Hehe.
When we reached Chinatown,
C was already crying out hungry so our main priority was to go makan! After walking and wondering where can we eat, we finally went into their small alley and found this shop selling
beef ball beehoon. It's cheap and nice! And we all had a bottle of
Pepsi each.
The Vintage Pepsi Bottle
We will never see this in Singapore man...lol~
C and
S had 3 bowls in all between themselves...while clement and I had a bowl each.
S eats a lot...that's why. Haha. The serving wasn't a lot too, but just nice for girls I think.
Not too much and not too little mah. Hehe.
Anyway by some luck we later found this area which was known as the "
Chinatown Wholesale Market". And wholesale it really is! It was near the beefball beehoon place lor. Actually I already forgot where it was, since we were unsystematically weaving in and out...haha. Probably clement knows it bah...
This was the street I think.
The Chinatown Street
The wholesale center was
amazing. You have to go shop there to see it for yourself. The 1st shop we went was selling sunglasses. They have some really nice ones, and some that's like safety goggles.
C wanted to get them because she works in a lab and it would make sense to have a pair of such goggles too. So we asked the lady how much is 1. The lady replied "
one thousand". And we were like, 1000B for a safety goggle?! So expensive. So we told her don't want. Actually we didn't for her to finish speaking, because after that she say, "
No, 1 dozen, 320 baht." We all couldn't believe our ears. Hahaha.
S then asked her, "
1 pair how much?" And she replied, "
no, don't sell 1 pair. 1 dozen only."
We
pengz at the thought of buying
12 pairs of safety goggles. Crazy to buy 12 pairs at 1 shot right?
Somemore
C also dunno whether her colleagues would want the goggles or not. So in the end, we didn't buy lor.
So
S was asking the lady, "
Everything sell 1 dozen only ah?" And the lady nodded her head. We all couldn't believe it lor. I doubt anyone could. The designs for the sunglasses were nice, but can't possibly buy 12 mah...lol~ So crappy. In the end we left the shop empty-handed.
After that we went to the next shop, everything in there was already packaged nicely in
6s and 12s. And so we got the idea...that everything in this wholesale market sells in dozens/half-dozens. Cannot buy individual one eh!!!
And even if individual ones are sold, it's so expensive! So
S made the comment, "
wah lau, everything sells in dozens...it's really cheaper by the dozen...literally." I agree too!!!
There were shops selling lots of toys, and so we moved on since it's of no interest. Then we came to this shop that sells a lot of
girly hair accessories, make up, pins, hair clips, earrings, even those strings/chains we see at 77th street too!! Oh, and also those
Live-strong wristbands that's the hype nowadays.
S bought a lot of that..it's cheap! I think it was like 50B (S$2) for 12. For that you can only get 1 in Singapore lar!
I bought the
heart-shaped earrings there! 6 pairs for 23B only. That's like 4B a pair...which is like, 20cents? Unbelievable lar!! I also bought a dozen of
make-up sponge, as well as half-dozen of
brush-combs. Cannot buy individual one lor...so no choice. Clement bought a dozen
nail-cutters okay. Madness. Didn't buy the
make-up though..scared that I will be sensitive to it. Hehe.
And after that we visited several small stalls by the road, there was this stall selling earings at 1 pair for 20B and then
12 pairs for 60B. Of course we buy 12 pairs lar! At least this one we can choose different pairs and don't have to buy all 12 pairs the same. I shared with
C and we both bought 13pairs in total. It costed us 65B...so amounted to 1 pair 5B...20 cents again! LoL~ Frankly I saw those earrings in Singapore before...at this shop that sells earrings at so-called "Factory Prices", which was 90cents! And I thought it was cheap already...before I saw that the cost was 20cents in BKK.
They are earning 400% liao lor. What more can I say?
And then we also bought
nail stickers from another shop further down! it was also sold in 12s...and it cost us like 50B. Again
C and I decided to share. Cannot choose, since it's already packaged. Well, we split it among ourselves later. I cannot believe it man...everything is so cheap! And somemore everything is sold in bulk! Haha. For the same nail sticker it will cost like $3.00 for 1, and in BKK it's 12 for S$2 only! Goodness! After that we all had lots of ideas on being an
entrepreuner liao...haha...
Anyway the ultimate was when we visited this shop, called
Ribbon or something (I can't remember). It looked like a normal shop actually...but when we went in, we realised that it was
2 storeys and there was escalator inside somemore okies!! Haha. And the array of stuffs were amazing. Those
earrings and bracelet I bought (from the previous posts) were all from there lor! Good thing was that you buy and they will give you discount accordingly. And somemore we didn't have to buy many of the same item...just buy many many things. There were
bracelets, necklaces, coloured strings, Livestrong bands, hair clips, hair chopsticks, hair accessories of every kind, belts, bags, earrings, more earrings, more bags, more hair clips...lol. Can shop till you drop dead man...
We spent the longest time there liao. And the lady didn't allow us to carry our stuffs to walk in the shop, so we get to deposit them at the counter. All the better, because we can have 2 hands free to shop lor! LoL~ And so we did! Haha. All of us had something to buy...clement bought stuffs for his sister-in-law (brother's wife) and I bought my
earrings and hairclips. Hehe. And then
C had her earrings and
S bought the strings and Livestrong bands (they had words on it, which he liked it so much).
Damn shiok lar! We had a
20% discount off the listed prices...so it was a very very good deal yah. Hehe.
Think we got stucked in the shop for about an hour plus, before realising that the shop was going to close. So we hurriedly paid for everything, retrieved our stuffs and then left!
And after that we stopped at a restaurant for a drink! That restaurant had a
superbly good service!!! I think they purposely cater to tourists. First we sat down, they offered us
ice-cold towels to clean up and refresh. What a nice touch! And then after we placed our orders (only drinks though) he pushed this
trolley of books on Thailand and travel guides and even this chart on history of Thailand! And then he presented us this
hand-drawn map of Chinatown, showing where we are and the areas around it. It was then we realised that the amazing sell-things-by-the-dozen place we just been to was the
wholesale market! Hehe.
We kept the map thinking in the future we shall come back to this restaurant again! The service was so good! And then the washrooms were
phenomenal. So clean and nice with toilet paper, hand soap, and towelettes.
Most of the places we went to the toilet was just, the toilet bowl only wor.
After having our drinks, we left the restaurant. I saw this very
cheena-styled phone booth so asked clement to take a picture.
That's Me and the Phone Booth!
C and S were actually still inside the restaurant, packing their stuffs so that it will be easier to carry it around. The owner of the restaurant was very nice wor, he even offered them a big bag to pack their stuffs in. By then they were too paiseh (coz we never eat anything leh...only drink), so they just rejected the owner. And the owner was like, "Next time come back okay!!" Yah we definitely will. haha
After that we proceeded to this shop to buy tidbits. All those makan stuffs that we heard so much of but never see before lor. For example the shit-lookalike pork floss. Haha. And then there were very nice floss-on-prawn crackers too. Anyway clement already planned to buy stuffs back for all his colleagues...in the end we had 1 big box of tidbits. The shop owner was nice wor, he gave us a 5% discount and then packed everything into a box for us so that we can check it in for our flight.
Wanted to have seafood at 1 of the restaurant but clement couldn't remember the place. Moreover he said it wasn't that good, so we abandoned the idea. We decided to head back to the hotel because there's no way we are going to carry boxes around while looking for dinner lor. Hehe.
Anyway taking a cab in Thailand is also a kind of art. Must haggle with the driver to use the meter one leh. Sometimes they will refuse and insist on 1 flat fare lor. So must be smart in deciding whether it's a good deal or not. Heh. And anyway, clement took this traffic light photo while in the cab!
Traffic Light With CounterSo interesting right? They actually have counters for their traffic lights one wor. But this one wasn't working. If not it will actually show how many seconds of green light, how many seconds of red light. You can literally plan your travel time to the second literally...
Anyway we reached the hotel, dumped our stuffs, and then decided to go out for dinner. We decided on this little quaint restaurant which serves authentic Thai food.
C wanted to have some authentic Thai food mah, and since we didn't want to go too far, we just went for the nearest Thai restaurant lor!
I had
Thai-styled hor fun okies. Haha. I don't really like Thai food that much because it's either spicy or sour. Both I also dun like lor. Haha. But their hor fun is
sweet one wor. So weird.
Clement had a set meal again, and they served so many things in small portions that the table was full of plates again. There were
tom yam soup, green curry, and some other stuffs which I don't remember. But I remembered that the green curry was soooo spicy that I couldn't take it. And to think they actually asked for the level of spiciness (which clement request moderate) when taking orders.
C and
S had green curry too, but their spicy level was very spicy. So I guess it was worse. Heh. But at least they can take spicy food...unlike me lor...
I shared part of clement's meal and he also had a bit of the sweet hor fun. He can really eat lor. lol. And then after that there were also fruits to go along with the meal. It's either a dessert or fruit actually, and then we chose fruit. Heh~
Papaya (like a leaf) and Pineapple!So interesting hor? Hehe. And then
S realised that the benches all had this heart-shaped thingy. So we took a photo too!!!
Heart-Shape in the Middle!So special right? Hehe.
Anyway after dinner we went for the
Thai-girl show. Well, we didn't know where to go so we asked the hotel to direct us. In the end we realised that it was so damn ex! 100B to get there (4 of us) and then at the place we paid 700B to watch. That's like S$28 to watch okies...more expensive than movie tix sia... -_-!!
But since it's
once-in-a-lifetime, we decided that we had to spend the money to see what it was about. All of us had heard stories but none of us ever watched it before, so we go see see lor. Hehe.
The place looked more like a gambling den actually, till after we paid up and then the guy directed us through a door. Inside was all dark and of course, no cameras were allowed. They had tables which were level to the stage. So we sat on chairs while the girls danced away on the stage. So for those sitting at the front row (
C and
S did) the girls were dancing literally in front of them.
Anyway as the show wore on our
jaws dropped lar. Haha. Too explicit to describe here already! Funny thing was there's this group of ang-mohs who were so high man. Especially this lady, she was screaming "go go go" at the girls and then clapping so loudly. She and her group were big tippers man...I saw them keep tipping the performing girls lor. Heh~
After 1 hour we decided to leave because we couldn't tahan the smoke anymore. It's air-conditioned and people were smoking lor, it's like a club lar...where booze and cigarettes are very common. My eyes also cannot tahan le...watering like mad. So we took a cab and left.
The taxi driver very cute wor. We asked him where was that area but he refused to let us know. And then he kept saying that we paid 700B to watch the show too expensive le. And he kept trying to recommend us to go watch the same show at 500B. But only this time the girls will be younger. -_-!! Cannot believe it man. Clement was like, "
no lar, dun want to watch." While the 3 of us were sniggering at the back.
So we went back, washed up, unpack stuffs again since we changed rooms liao.
And that, was our 2nd day in BKK.
Stunningly Gorgeous Y 2:13 AM
