Saturday, January 05, 2008

Prince: Day 7-8@Bangkok@Sukkumvit

We moved from Khao San road to Su Khum Vit, we took a taxi that cost us around 300 Bath for ONE trip, most taxi driver will charge higher as the way there is highly congested.

Arriving at Su Khum Vit, we took hours to find accommodation but all fully book, and eventually, through friends’ recommendation, we found SUK 11! They have a room for 4 persons going at 1200 Bath per night. I think it is reasonable.

This SUK11 backpacker hostel is nicely decorated in such local culture oriented. They even has washing machine, and simple breakfast provided. SUK 11 caters mostly to backpackers & permanent or long term backpacker.

We visited Lord Maha Brahma status somewhere near Central Market, and also try-out the food @ central hall. According to my wife, the pork leg is well-known among local. At night, we tour around Patpong to check up Tiger show, at the end, we got cheated for 500 baht. The lady outside will keep pulling you and kept telling you ‘100 bath ONLY, and get ONE drink FREE’, the moment you step in before the 2nd show, they will ask you OR force you to pay 500 Bath per person for the show. So be careful!

The next day we visited Golden Palace, Amulet market, Wat Po & City Pillar. All great scenes you can expect. Let me warn you, the entry fee is expensive for Golden Palace, going @ 250 Bath per person, and we felt that it is not worth unless you are really those temple fanatics!

We also visited Golden Mount, and after that SOK 24, and followed by Nana Plaza. We got to see Ladyboy Show, Pole Dancing and many more shows @ cheap price, range at 80 Bath to 150 Bath per entry. (NOT MEAN FOR TIGET SHOW)

Learning point: If you have more than 2 persons in your group, we learn that sometimes it is even cheaper to take taxi than LRT or you may want to try out the Water taxi. Water taxi cut through the congestion, but water taxi does not stop exactly at your destination because not every are has pier. You just got to take a bit of walking.

We also tried out the fried crickets, frog, and others insect, tasted like fried chicken, and we also came across lady selling shrimp, we thought it was fried shrimp, but only realized we have to eat the shrimp alive. She put some curry powder, and some mixture on the ‘jumping shrimp’, and ‘that’s it! You eat it!’

The very last day in Bangkok, we visited Floating market!
And also got cheated, you should try to approach the travel agency under Siam Oriental @ Khao San Road, they charge only 250 Bath per person inclusive of boat. The one we got is 500 Bath per person, and we have to chuck out another 150 bath per person to rent a long tail boat along the river.

Floating market: Nothing special really except you got to ride on the boat, and experience the busy scene of floating market. It was too commercialized as well, mostly target at tourists. But we understand there are 2 floating markets in Bangkok, first one is original, and the other is newly developed. We should have tried the other one, probably better.

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