Hello and great to see you all again! I was really eager to write about my recent trip to Bangkok with my family because there are just so many interesting things that I have come across during that trip and I wish to share with you guys. In previous times, I have never thought of visiting Thailand before because it's just so near to Malaysia and I thought there would not be much differences in terms of norms/customs and the things we have in both countries. After the trip, I realised that both Malaysia and Thailand do share a lot of similarities in certain aspects (eg. both countries have hot and humid weathers) but there are also noticeable differences between both countries such as the national language, cultural and technological aspects.
There is one thing that I have to praise about this country. Their washrooms- aka WC are impressively clean! I'm not even exaggerating. I'm not sure if that applies to male washrooms but surprisingly, every single female washrooms that I have been to in Bangkok are super clean and dry (that includes malls and public places). They even have plastic bags hanging inside the WC cubicles for sanitary pad disposals! Some malls even provide disposable toilet seat wrappers. I noticed whenever I share my Bangkok trip experience with my friends I could never stop myself from mentioning about the cleanliness of the WCs in Bangkok. It is really impressive, at least to me. Malaysians should really learn from the Thais on how to ensure the cleanliness of their washrooms.
Okay, back to the main story. This time, my family and I spent a total of 6 days 5 nights in Bangkok. Our travel dates were 17th of June to 22nd of June. We spent most of our time in the main areas of Pathum Wan exploring the city's most famous and largest shopping malls and attractions.
It was such a shame that we did not get to explore other areas around Bangkok nor did we visit the Grand Palace, the big shrines and temples and all those big touristy spots. There are a number of reasons why we chose not to visit those places. Firstly, the weather was really hot and we didn't wanna get all sweaty and disgusting. Secondly, some of the places require long car rides such as the Chocolate Ville which requires almost an hour of car ride in order to get there, not forgetting to mention how expensive the car fares would be if we were to go there. Besides, most of the grand temples and the grand palace are located sort of far away from the place we stayed at. And so, we made the decision to only stay around the main areas of Siam, Ratchadamri and Sukhumvit.
We flew with Thai Airways. I can't remember exactly how much the air fares costed for the 4 of us but it was roughly around RM1600++ to RM1800++ ish. The hotel that we stayed at was Arnoma Grand Bangkok (recommended by Ting jie) which is strategically located in between of the Big C supercentre and Gaysorn Village.
✌ Psst... I've included a short travel vlog about our Bangkok trip (first day) at the end of this post!
Hotels?
One thing to take note of while travelling to Thailand is that you must make sure to select the exact number of persons that will be staying in the hotel room otherwise the hotel staffs may charge you extra or may even ask you to book extra rooms if they discover that the number of persons that are selected by you while making room reservations does not match with the real amount of people that will staying in that room. Well.. my family and I did face some problems while checking into that hotel because we only booked one deluxe room with two beds (meant for 2 pax) thinking that it would fit us all because we are just used to staying in one room altogether whenever we travel abroad- even in China. But upon checking-in, the staff realised that there are actually 4 persons (the 4 of us) will be staying in that room and so they said since the deluxe room that we initially booked was only meant for 2 persons, they then required us to book another deluxe room. As a result, we incurred an extra amount of RM1900+ for an extra deluxe room for 5 nights. Hence, do keep in mind that if you have a family of 4 persons, make sure to book hotel rooms that have a capacity for 4pax if you intend to stay together in just one room.On that day itself, we woke up at 7.30 am, got ourselves ready and headed to KLIA at 8.30am. We arrived at our destination at 9.20am. Had our breakfast at Oldtown.
The airport was quiet in the morning.
Iced honey lemon drink.
Chicken hor fun.
After our breakfast, we checked ourselves in and headed towards the aerotrain station to board the next aerotrain.
Took the aerotrain to the satellite building to catch our flight.
Here's a picture of the plane that we boarded.
I sat two seats away from the window seat. The passengers of that two seats didn't show up hence I had the entire row to myself hehe.
Here's the leg room. Not too shabby.
Here's how the seats look like.
I love how the plane seats are differently coloured- pink, purple and yellow. Interesting. 😃
All seats are equipped with pretty standard things like a cup holder, little foldable desk, life vest and a seat-back screen. The selection of in-flight entertainment was a little bit boring for me. It would be better if the song and movie selections are wider.
Mandatory photo of the plane's wing. 😜
I pre-ordered a seafood meal but they did not serve that to me. So, when the food cart comes, I chose tom yam prawn rice over something else. It comes with a bottle of mineral water, salad and a slice of cake or pie which I'm not so sure of.
The prawns were a bit overcooked but it was alright. 🍚 My mum's meal comes with an orange juice so she gave that to me. 🍊
Arrived at the Suvarnabhumi airport after a duration of 1h30m flight time. We claimed our baggage, going through all the necessary procedures and headed towards the taxi/cab service floor at level 1.
This is how the airport looks like from the outside. Oh and the taxi service provided at the airport was pretty convenient. All you had to do is to head towards level 1, get a waiting ticket at the ticket kiosk and wait for your designated taxi driver to arrive. 🚕
For first timers, you may wanna note that there are taxi drivers who prefer not to calculate their fares based on meter-rates but instead, they may ask you for price offers. So do insist on having meter-based fares if you want to.
Heading towards our destination via the highway. It took us almost 30+ minutes to get to our hotel. Taxi fare was around 450 baht (6-seater) if not mistaken. Our taxi was a toyota innova.
Outside of centralworld, reaching our hotel soon.
This is the typical tuk-tuk car that you will see on the roads.
After checking into our hotel (unfortunately no pics), we headed to the Erawan Shrine to have a visit and to do some prayers.
I like how the centralworld mall uses led boards for advertisement displays cuz it looks so cool!
Gaysorn village lobby from the outside view.
Here's the famous Erawan Shrine, it was really crowded that day.
Four-faced Buddha.
A close-up of the four faced Buddha statue.
Flower offerings.
A picture of the BTS railways.
After our prayers, we went to Big C supercentre for a visit.
Tourists love shopping for all the food and snacks at the Big C supermarket.
I personally do not find the place really fascinating or whatsoever because there is just too many people shopping for goods in the supermarket and this place is just like the Big Aeon supermarket in our country.
There are also various of stores inside the Big C supercentre, many of which are restaurants, clothing shops and food kiosks.
The crowd at the supermarket.
Did you miss the chance to visit the Big C supercentre? Fred not, there are actually lots of supermarkets in Bangkok that you can purchase your food items and snacks from.
On our way to centralworld via the pedestrian bridge.
There was a hua hin food festival/street event going on outside of centralworld.
Here's a few pics to show you guys how the mall looks like inside.
This mall is claimed to be the largest shopping mall in Bangkok.
We had our dinner at a thai restaurant.. which I don't know its name since it's in Thai (googled it and apparently it's called Mae Sri Ruen).
Thank goodness there were english wordings on the menu.
Plain chicken noodle soup. Around 55 baht. 🍜
I was shocked when they served it because the portion is really small compared to the dishes that we usually have back here in Malaysia and so you will certainly not be full after eating this.
Tom yum noodle soup. Around 60 baht if not mistaken. My sis said it was good.
Thai coconut pancakes. 45 baht. This dessert was really good, it's like a pastry puff with fragrant semi-cooked coconut milk filling. Do give it a try if you're there!
Clear tom yum goong soup. It was just meh.
Iced thai milk tea. 55-60 baht approx. The tea tasted okay but too sweet for my liking.
Sis ordered a butterfly blue pea flower tea for only 40 baht.🍹
There are different shopping zones in centralworld- namely fashion, kids, technology, health & beauty and a lot more.
Kinokuniya bookstore outside of Isetan centralworld.
Sis was craving for dessert so we stopped by QQ desserts.
Reminds me of the Snowflake dessert shop that we have in Pavilion KL which also uses the 'UFO' disc pagers (yep that's what it's called in google).
Taiwanese fig jelly (ai yu) for 119 baht.
Later, we went to take a look at the kids' corner and I was able to spot something from afar..
It's Pingu's English School! How cute that is! 😍
I was really attracted by these little figurines that were on display.
If only there were pingu merchandises for sale 😞
My sis and I were thirsty so we looked around the water aisle in the Central food hall (supermarket) to see what's good.
We were astonished to see such a huge bottle of Fiji water there! Ek-hem.. er the reason why we were excited about it is because firstly, none of the supermarkets in KL sells such huge bottled Fijis and secondly, they were only sold at 80 baht for 1.5l!
Of course we're gonna buy it since we don't have that in KL 😜
Also got 2 packs of nude mints: pure mint and lemon tea flavoured ones. 25 baht each.
The flavours were strong and the candy melts instantly in your mouth. Nothing bombastic but it sure was interesting.
Here's my travel vlog for day 1:
We did not get to explore much on the first day because by the time we reached Bangkok it was already 2 something pm in the afternoon and when we reached our hotel it was nearly 3-4pm already. Stay tuned for the upcoming updates!
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