Friday, March 10, 2006
Three days had gone by just so quickly that I can hardly stop by to savour those moments... A moment of joy, laughter, tireness and yes, scolding by my room mate.
Now I shall recount from my memories that short three-day Bangkok escapade.
DAY ONE TUESDAY 07 MARCH 2006: SINGAPORE TO BANGKOKChecked-in for AirAsia flight FD3502 at 9.30am. Had breakfast at MacDonald's before boarding the aircraft. AirAsia aircraft was horrendous. There was even a mosquito (same for our return flight as well). We touched down at Bangkok International Airport at around midday, after a 2.15 hours of flying.
Upon reaching Bangkok City Inn on a taxi, I was appalled by the exterior look of the hotel. It was a little bit run-down. Check-in process was a slow one before we got Room No. 803 (Nb and I) and 804 (My and Sc). The room condition was 'OK' for the price we paid. But the shower kept blowing hot and cold.
Shortly afterwards, Bangkok turned out to be a shopping haven for the girls while it turned out as '1 hour = 1day' feeling for me. They were shopping for bras in World Trade Centre after our lunch at MK Restaurant, decided even before the trip commenced. I went Kinokuniya to read on philosophy. Then we took a train to Siam Discovery Centre and MahBoonKrong (MBK), before heading for Condoms and Cabbages Restaurant by tuktuk for dinner.
At Condoms and Cabbages Restaurant, we ordered so many dishes that we could hardly finish at the end. Spring roll, breaded fish, Thai chicken wrapped with pandan, tom yam kung (prawn), mixed vegetables, pineapple rice eat and curry chicken, along with coke and pepsi. Total billings came to be over 1,800 baht. Each person paid around SGD20 and the waitress' jaw dropped upon seeing the bill. But it's cheap for us:) The ambience of the restaurant was great (but was bitten badly by mosquitoes). We sat outdoor, and we were the only Asians. All were caucasians. This restaurant was set up to create an awareness for the need to curb HIV/AIDS by practising safe sex. Condoms were distributed for free and all food expenses will go towards the HIV/AIDS needy funds.
Retired for the night.
DAY TWO WEDNESDAY 08 MARCH 2006: BANGKOKHad breakfast before setting off for Dreamworld by taxi. Paid 450baht for unlimited ride tickets. It was not much different compared to 8 years ago when I patronised this theme park. The Giant House was still there, same goes along to many others such as vikings, hanging coaster, bumper car etc. We tried the Hurricane, and it was awesome! We were being swirled and tossed many a times till we could feel the blood gushing up our head! The weather was so hot and we sat in KFC where we had lunch. At 3.30pm, we left Dreamworld for hotel where we rested before the night comes alive.
Finally we met up with wc, wl, hy and hx. They arrived same day as us but took different flight timing. We had our dinner outdoor in Suan Lumphini while enjoying the singing by Thai singers on-stage. Both the pineapple rice and tom yam soup came up to be 280baht (over 10 dollars)! So expensive.
Shopped at the night bazaar before patronising a gay club called Freeman with wc and his 3 primary school friends. Bought a drink for 150baht. Saw many guys holding onto each other in the waist, some dancing vigourously, and later sc and I started to dance mildly after the cabaret show.
When sc and I went to its restroom, we were surprised that there was only a Male restroom, and the smell was so foul that I held my breath while peeing!
We went back to the hotel at 3am and slept.
DAY THREE THURSDAY 09 MARCH 2006: BANGKOK TO SINGAPOREWe skipped breakfast because we woke up late. During check-out, I argued with a front office personnel. Yes, we did have an extra person sharing the room with us but the front office personnel should have collected the extra charge from us on the very first day we check-in. Then she said "You should have informed us." But I rebutted "You should have checked and don't argue with me!" And she kept quiet.
We took a taxi to Siriraj Hospital where we visited a body musuem there. We walked past a section where we saw some fridges for storing dead bodies (mortuary) and the smell was so strong. The anatomy section was the most interesting but not for the soft-hearted. Here many foetus were on display, exhibiting the shapes for different periods of pregnancy. Some real dead human bodies were cut up and preserved so we could see the intestine, private parts, hearts, brains, nervous systems and blood vessels.
Many different types of siamese twins' foetus were also on display and they looked disgusting. But I felt this musuem is educationally good for those reading biology.
We took a taxi to the airport, but was jammed in the traffic for over an hour. On arrival, we came to realise that the flight was delayed by 2 hours. We had our lunch at BK before checking-in at Row 5. FD3505 was supposed to take off at 4.35pm but we took off at 6.35pm instead.
Upon boarding the bus which drove us to where our aircraft was, a big-size caucasian started to chat casually with me. He started off saying 'what passport is that?' I replied saying 'Singapore passport.' 'Oh that means I saw so many Singaporeans, all escaping their own country?' the caucasian remarked. I was kinda in total agreement with him. Escaping from Singapore.
We left the Thai ground at 18.35pm (19.35pm Singapore time) and landed at almost 10pm in Singapore. I took bus no. 24 home thereafter.
|Melvin Ng| 4:00 pm|
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