phuket day 2

Day 2
work up early at abt 9am had home cook anerican breakfast by mich, before we head out to the beach first was kata beach , let the dog out to play and run around. kata is rather fine beach , not so much crowds as it is the off peak season. i believe its less crowded then patong beach. here you can surf or jet ski.

after that we sent tonic back home for a hose down before heading out to nai harn beach. the beach here is even secluded and smaller then kata but still its nice. we had lunch at one of the little cafe which have a magnificent view of the sea.

this cafe you have to take off your shoe before stepping in.

after which we drove up to the promthen cape its the southern most point of phuket yet another stunning view of the indian ocean andamann coast. its has one of the best sunset view point. theres a elephant shrine there encircling it with hundreds of elephant donated by devotees i suppose. after which we walked to the lighthouse. inside is a mini museum of sort , interesting to say the least. after which we went down to outlet mega mart along chao fa road. bought a couple of stuff like boardshorts and shirts..

phuket day 1

Day 1
when i arrive at phuket airport i was not greeted by nat whom is the appointed driver to cheuffeur me to mich place. instead i have to wait about 20 mins for nats brother to pick me up.

the trip to mich place is about 45mins. long but interesting not to say the least. as i talk to the presumably the gal friend of nats brother. question i asked regarding phuket. my answers are punctuated with broken english and occasional finding the right word to reply to me.

total cost for the ride to mich place was abt 600 baht. i was greeted by the couple mich and warren at their landed bangalow property , which were gaurded by security gaurded elderly guys. dump my bags and we headed out for a meal,abt 10 mins drive. as usual when in thailand eat what the thai eat. tomyam gong. some seafood and sticky rice which u can eat it with your hands. we chatted and notice the mosquito starts to irritate. thats the time we had to leave the restuarant.

after getting back to mich place, had some fun with the dobberman dog and tabby cat, aptly named gin tonic. settling down in my bedroom it has cable tv and a king size bed great for my tired legs and heavy stomach.

Bangkok trip - Day 1

Day 1

Met kh chris and ryan at the T 1 airport for our flight by air asia to bangkok .chris was surprised that the plane was brand new airbus cause his normal work flight within asia are pretty old planes.

The journey was about an hour with no hick ups along the way .at the new Suvarnabhumi airport . we realized how the press reported that it was half complete. i noticed in away the walls are not painted. perhaps its the raw industrial look thing quite in trend. the immigration as usual has the camera to take photos of visitors.well to some it may be invasion of privacy but then it helps interpol to identify and apprehend criminals.

After exiting from the airport we were picked up by chris friend suvarbhukit . he brought us to a small open air shop that sells fantastic tasting pathai noodle not to mention the delicious bo bo cha cha like desert with a boiled egg in it. sk toold us that we are just in time for the loi krathong festival this sat which is a lantern or light festival. theres fireworks and releasing of lanterns on the chao phraya river. cool i think to myself

It took us 40 mins to drive to our hotel due to the peak hour jam at soi ari . The hotel name is what else my house does sound abit cheesy but was well worth the value only sgd 26 per night. we hurried changed up and move out to ashok BTS station . Drop by soi cowboy a place full of ago go bar . Drinks are at 108 baht which was very cheap.

Fish and chip shop .. heard its famous

We then head down to a fish and chips shop which almost identical to the ones in england. heard that the owner is from the uk. next it was exploration of the hippest pub around soi 11 which is the bed supper club . also scouted for Qbar but unfortunately we could not find it.

Bed supper club.. almost went in.. 600 baht per entry

The night finally ended at 2am with a taxi back from sukhumvit.

Bangkok trip - Day 2

Day 2

woke up early . supposed to meet up with sk to travel to Ayatthuya at 10am but he had something on and had to postponed to 1pm . In the meanwhile we had breakfast along soi ari in one of those shophouses . Very nostalgic looking store as you can see from the photo below a
you can see we had phathai noodles again.

In short, how un-adventurous we are. After which we had coffee next to our hotel called Wawee coffee, nice little quint looking coffee house with wifi access about 30 baht for an hour access.

at about 12pm SK picked us up for lunch at this chicken rice store some where along the way too ayutthaya. Taste great almost like the chicken rice back in Singapore except the soup is more taster i think they add alot of chicken bones to bring out the stock.

After 1 1/2 hr in the pick up we arrived at one of the smaller pagoda , beside it is the elephant ride for tourist we decide to skip that one and head to the pagoda for a some photo shooting.

Later we head to the famous ruins of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet which is next to the then royal palace and temple for some photo taking. To avoid paying tourist price , SK took on the task of getting the ticket himself for us.

We have to stand away and pretend to be local. The plan worked we saved 10 baht haha. We also walked to the near by temple Wat Phra Ram but did not go in as its close to darkness. On the way back to the car, took some pictures at the pond.

Instead we drop by one of the famous Roti Sai Mai store. Consist of peanut candy floss with some sort of thin pancake rolled together and eaten.

For dinner we had seafood along the river still i have no idea where it was . But dinner was great and cost us only 3-400 baht each.

The night ended with a trip down to soi cowboy where we did some pub hopping. Me and ryan decided to split up with the gang checking out the salsa scene there but was quite dissappointed with club la rueda which only has a handful of people drinking and one couple dancing. We decided instead to pop by siam square for a walk along the street looking at the street peddler stuff and checking out hardrock cafe.

Bangkok trip - Day 3

Early in the morning ,We meet up with kh friend which is leonard and gf who is working in Laos but pop by over the weekend to shop and hangout with us.

First stop is the wat pho or the temple of the reclining buddha,
This guy is huge man!
Look at his feet!

Interesting is that there are some metal bowl along the corridor of the reclining buddha . It is said that by dropping a coin in each bowl till you have reach the corresponding age . Then make a wish and it might come true. Not sure how true it is but i gave it a shot!

Next is the Grand Palace / jade buddha temple, remember guys should wear pants and proper shoe and ladies long skirt to enter the palace. Else you have to loan one from the visitor center there.

The ticket to grand palace also includes a trip to the coin museum but we decided to give that a miss as we are running out of time for lunch. Here are some photos taken there.



The jade buddha taken from outside using my tele lense.. cause you can take picture from inside.
I think they are the army and navy guard.. watching over the grand palace

Little kid meditating in the temple! so guai

Prays and offering of incense and white lotus flower by devotees..

Deities statues inside the temple evoke fear and mystic charms.

After the visits we drop by MBK to do some shopping, lunch was at KFC and a HACHIBAN RAMEN. Not to mention siam Paragon for some more shopping. In the evening, KH friend's pang joined us for dinner .

A special event is happening at chao phraya river thus we hopped into the cab and headed there. Its the loy krathong festival , at first we were hopping to go for a river cruise cum dinner but all were fully booked. (as expected) in the end we settle for riverside dinner at the riverside hotel. Food was sumptuous , again mostly seafood with beer. Entertainment wise we were treated with colorful and brightly illuminated floats /boats cruising down the river.

When we thought not else is gonna happen. A barge came out from no where and started lighting up the skies with fireworks! it was a real treat for me. Thankfully my handy tripod was with me.



Good time to propose to gf .. look at the heart shaped firework!

After dinner we bought some floats and decides to release it to the river. It is suppose to carry all your bad luck, so you could start afresh. Some folks also release hot air balloon away.

Returning back from the festivities. Ryan went to rest early, me KH, Chris , Leonard decides to check out a clubbing spot, RCA. And its really quite a interesting place, tons of teenagers hang out there.. about 5 mega pubs/clubs there . We hang around "Route 66" which has trance, live bands , R&B rooms.

Alright night guys! till tomorrow

Bangkok trip - Day 4

Final day at bangkok so what did we do?

Well morning, ryans stomaches was bad and he had to stay in bed to rest. The few of us chris myself and KH heads down to the chatuchak weekend market about 2 station from our hotel. There are tons of shops to look at but a reminder is to go early like 9 am to avoid the crowd and the heat from the zinc roof. Got some t-shirts and tibits before having breakfast at one of the shops.


With 15,000 shops, from clothing , hardware, furniture, yes and even pets too.. its just too large for us to cover. by 11am throngs of tourist started to pack up the place.. thats the cue for us to head back hotel .

Went down town to have lunch at mcdonalds at centralworld . Theres an new taste in town it was a double big mac. Och it is 4 paties instead of 2 !

KH was looking for naraya shop to get some stuff for his friend. But it has moved to somewhere else. Found it at last about afew station away. Leonard drop by after repairing his notebook.

Later in the evening we head out to chinatown for dinner , since this is our last dinner.
We decide to have it big.. more then 10 dishes! Not to mention the seafood! Nam Sing Restaurant was where i went 7 years ago and its still there.. We had fresh oysters, sharksfin soup,mixed vegetable, grilled fresh water prawns , roast pig, crab fried rice, BBQ spare rib, crabs etc. We spent about 700 baht each on food.. But really worth it :P

After dinner we decided to go for a chillout session at 2 of the highest lounge / pub around in bangkok. The first one is Dome/ sirocco.Siting on top of the state tower about 64 stories up. The view was stunning and was quite posh the bar counter gives the illusion that its floating as it was positioned right out on the edge of the building.

And finally the vertigo, at banyan tree hotel about 59 stories up, slightly narrower then dome. But still it offers another view of the city. But with a charge of 500 baht to enter. But worth every cent. Where can you find such open air pub 59 stories up in singapore?


Next morning, We had our breakfast around the area, something light like porriage. Interestingly we notice everyone is decked out in yellow polo-ts. We learnt that every monday was the royal day to remember the king thus all are dressed up in yellow.

Later in the afternoon, we checked out of our hotel and headed back home some with discomfort from the raw oyster eaten.. but not for me :P