We landed in Bangkok on March 19th 2008 night via flight AirAsia. We took the airport bus to our hostel which was Sawasdee Khaosan Inn. Everything in Bangkok was pretty convenient, depending on where u stay. It only costed us THB150 from the Survanabhumi Airport to Khaosan Road taking the Banglumphu route, which was very cheap for the distance.
We checked-in into Sawasdee Khaosan Inn for Deluxe Triple room. The room was clean and all, except for one thing- the air-conditioner wasnt working that well. Thus, it took some time for the air-cond to cool up the room. Other than that, everything was alright.
That same night, we walked and shopped and ate at Khaosan Road. They sell shirts, pants, bikinis, souveneirs, pad thais, fried insects and Thai pancakes. I love the pad thais (thai's fried rice noodles). Besides that, you can also see many 7-11 shops just on the same stretch of road.
On the next day, we went for Ayutthaya by River King Cruise Day Tour. We went to several historical sites of the old city of Thailand that looks similar to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I cant remember the names of the temples. But there was this temple that has a very interesting story behind this Buddha statue. This Buddha statue was built very long time ago and one day, a lightning struck the Buddha and the temple roof caught in fire. As a result, the Buddha's head fell onto the ground. The king at that time took it as a bad omen and reminded everyone to be cautious and careful. several years after that incident, the Burmese troop attacked Ayutthaya and burnt the whole city down.
In this temple, you can see the pictures telling the story of this Buddha Statue. They rebuilt the temple and the temple today is very much bigger to protect the old structure.
After the visit to the temple, we were brought to the current King residential area. After that, we came back to Bangkok by river. On the way, we had our dinner on the boat. Little we know that drinks werent included for the tour we paid. So, we had to pay for the drinks. But it was alright.
On the next day, we went to the Damnoen Saduak floating market. It is advisable not to go by taxis. Previously, I've checked through the Internet by previous travellers on their tips to go cheaper for this trip. However, my regret was we were sort of tricked by the taxi driver. He charged us THB1000 for the trip and back. The journey was quite far. So, it was alright. However, the taxi driver stopped us not at the floating market itself, but stopped us at a boat service company where they charged us so expensive for a boat trip around the floating market! We managed to bargain with them to a cheaper price but still, it is considered as expensive comparing if you follow tour. I've checked through the internet. It costs around THB600 per person to Damnoen Saduak. And if you're interested to go Rose Garden where you can see many traditional culture shows, it costs you THB1000 per person.
Thus, for the price we paid to the boat man and taxi driver, we could have gone to Rose Garden also. But we didnt.
Later at night, we went to Siam Centre to walk around the city shopping malls. We tride their chicken rice and also their pork satay. The chicken rice was soemthing different from ours in Malaysia. The sauce was different. From Siam Centre, we took skytrain to the Patpong area. We went for the pingpong show. Please Please dont go there. We went there and had a very very bad experience there. We wanted to try it for fun. We walked around and there was this guy who advertised us to go there. What he said was, you can go try, sample. If you dont like, you can leave the place. Okay, we thought. No harm sampling! Haha..
We sat down. We thought it was alright. We ordered our drinks. It's a must to order a drink that costed us THB100 per drink. Alright, we thought. Then, the guy asked us to buy him a drink also. We thought THB100, it's alright. Then, a group of girls cladded in bikinis came and pestered us to buy them drinks also. We didnt want to but they kept on pestering you. In the end, we agreed to buy them a drink for them to share. That's not the worst part.
The worst part was when the bill arrives on your table. The drink was THB100. The SHOW was THB700 per person! That's not the worst part. The worst part was when we had to pay the drink THB100 plus the THB700 for the introducer's show. The man who asked us to buy him a drink! my goodness! We felt so cheated! But we couldnt leave. There were bouncers downstairs! Plus, the drink that we bought the bikini cladded girls, it was the same drinks other tables bought for them too! They carry it from table to table!
Since we've already paid the costly price, we might as well sit there and watch the whole night. On the stage, there were girls topless dancing but you can see their face emotionless. Boring! And after a while, there will be the older and fatter version of ladies to perform EXTRA shows on the stage. These EXTRA shows are like inserting pingpongs into their vaginas and popping it out, blowing candles using their Vaginas, smoking a cigarette using Vaginas and etc.. We were somehow disgusted when they wanted to pop the pingpong at our direction! haha..
After their EXTRA show, they will come and ask for tips. We told them strictly no! We watched other foreigners face the same fate as ours too. Some even argued loudly and stormed downstairs leaving the place. But I think they have bouncers downstairs to stop you.
So, my advice is, please dont go to these places unless you're prepared to be cheated. THB800 is still ok per person. But not the way we have been cheated.
On the next day, we walked to Grand Palace and Temple of Dawn on our own. Saved us some money there. We took many pictures, including the Reclining Buddha. For Temple of Dawn, we took a ferry across the river to the temple and took some pictures.
LAter then, we took the airport bus to Survanabhumi and flew to Phuket for our next destination.
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